Holidays are meant to be a time for remembering, reflecting, celebrating, giving thanks, and of coming together, Journeyer. Like many of you, I enjoy everything about hosting family and friends in my home. The smell of a meal wafting from the oven, the themed tableware, the drone of catching up chatter and the magic of laughter fill my home and … Read More
Ask Annah: How Can I be Grateful in the Midst of So Much Pain?
Dearest Neighbor, November 1st always arrives with a flourish of “gratitude” memes and requests for you to participate in all sorts of activities and posts throughout the month. This daily practice can be downright grueling, disheartening, and un-empowering when you are in the doldrums or in a state of despair. I recall feeling inadequate during my grief periods following my … Read More
Ask Annah: Why Do Friendships Change After a Significant Loss?
“Friendships are discovered rather than made.” ~ Harriett Beecher Stowe Dear Journeyer, “Why do friendships change after a significant loss?” is a question and conversation I hear regularly from people of all ages and across all loss forms. If you have discovered that your relationships with friends or family feel strange or estranged since a Significant Life Loss Event entered … Read More
A Gift of Fatherly Love: Guest Post by “MrHeartlight,” Mitch Carmody
Dearest Journeyer, You know that person whose smile is so bright it lights up a room? The kind of person with a warm hug or firm handshake and a laugh that comes from deep within? The person who knows how to pick you up when you need a helping hand to lift you from the floor of devastation or one … Read More
The Reason Grief Feels Eternal
Even though it’s been twenty-seven years since my firstborn’s arrival into this world, I remember how eternal those weeks following his birth were. Like many moms do, I swayed in the rocker at the foot of the crib we’d so lovingly adorned the nursery with. I twisted the dial on the bed chamber’s musical mobile and awaited its soothing melodies. I … Read More
The Circle of Life
Happy Sunday, Journeyer! I know you will understand and appreciate the brevity of this post. I spent this past week preparing projects for this work, to train and certify five of our neighbors in the Integrated Energy Therapy® modality, and working my Outside Job. Today sums up so much of what Life is all about. In a matter of hours, … Read More
Springing into Action
Happy Sunday, Journeyer! As I type, the sun is blazing through the picture window at my back, a welcome change from the cloud-covered rainy days of recent. Every spring I find myself springing into action in new and refreshing ways. Warren is in Thailand and this cat has a full day of play ahead of her, beginning with last minute … Read More
Healing and the Two Sides of Cooperation
Cooperation. It’s one of the first words we learn with regard to getting along with others. It often first appears in forms of obedience: cooperate with your parents by doing your chores, helping out in the household or with other siblings. We then move on to structures outside the home, daycare and school, where these same expectations for cooperation are tied … Read More
How I “Got” Happiness in an Utterly Deplorable and Lacking Week
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it’s too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow.” ~Paul H. Dunn Happy Sunday-Monday, Journeyer! You know how random life can be sometimes? How you’re plugging along all nice … Read More
Sometimes Life and Happy are Hard
Journeyer, Sometimes Life and Happy are hard. This week has been one of those for me. I’ve been battling a bug for over a week, one that moved up through my body and settled into an awful respiratory ick. A lingering sore throat finally forced me to the doctor’s office. I’m happy that an antibiotic took care of that neck … Read More