Tag: grief
Writing Helped Me Love Again After Losing Everything
When we talk about grief, people often imagine it arrives like a thunderclap in the very moment a loved one dies, followed by an immediate aftermath and the early tears. But for many of us who’ve lived it, grief isn’t loud. Sometimes it simmers quietly for years, showing up as Read more
The Other Side
…burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment, down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. I am sitting Read more
Little Losses
They told me grief comes in waves. I expected an ebb and flow, not placid waters interrupted by a tsunami. Every once in a while, I forget about the losses. I forget that I’m no longer pregnant, or that I can’t call my parents’ landline to speak with my dad. Read more
The Four Deaths of James Edward
I. James Edward the Third entered the world like a limp bruise—purple against the sterile room—in a silence that hurt my ears from straining, stretching and stretching, taking with it his brain cells and future. Some of you will know what I mean. I’m sorry for that. The only thing Read more
Shapeshifting
The shape of heavy tears streaking down, earthwards, journeying to find our loved ones faces, again The shape of trembling lips the very moment we recall their forevermore absence as we write the date, on this day their birthday The shape of the book on the shelf in the store, Read more
Lessons in Healing From the Aisles of Target
August 2016 I’m kneeling in the aisle like a worshipper dropping tears into the white ceramic shell of an armadillo. What else would you do on your inaugural Target run in a new town you thought you would love but don’t even like? Read more
The Goodbye Girl
We stood over you with the dropper of oxycodone, trying to get it in the tiny pocket inside your cheek, the three of us, like The Witches of Eastwick, but a lot less funny. Your jaw was clenched tight like a clam because you were about to die, only we Read more