The Healing Journey

September 22, 2023Grief is weird “Before I begin, this post is not seeking sympathy. It is merely trying to shed a little light on the total weirdness and unpredictability of grief. Those who have...

September 21, 2023“Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.” — Norman Cousins Did you hear the one about the guy with the broken hearing aid? Neither did he....

September 20, 2023 The After Loss Credo I need to talk about my loss.I may often need to tell you what happened –or to ask you why it happened.Each time I discuss my loss, I am helping myselfface...

September 19, 2023“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.” ― Katherine...

September 18, 2023 I Will As long as I can I will look at this world for the both of us.As long as I can I will sing with the birds,I will laugh with the flowers,I will pray to the stars for both of...

September 17, 2023“You are not prepared to go on this trip …” — Captain Henri Sebastien When someone we love dies, even if the relationship has been a troubled one, we will often seek closure and...

September 16, 2023“Don’t lose your confidence if you slip, be grateful for the trip, and pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” — Ginger Rogers Grief can be cumulative. You...

September 15, 2023“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, he...

September 14, 2023“Death sits at the heart of each of us.”— William James   The loss of a loved one will have a profound effect on your life. And after you set out on your healing journey, you’ll...

September 13, 2023 Life Life is just a stepping stone,A pause before we make it home,A simple place to rest and be,Until we reach eternity.Everyone has a life journey,A path to take with lots to...

September 12, 2023“Life begins on the other side of despair.”— John-Paul Sartre   We live in a world where someone always has to take the blame. At least that’s what we think. It’s painfully...

September 11, 2023“Loved you yesterday, love you still, always have, always will.” – Elaine Davis   Sandy’s mother-in-law Josephine suffered from an unusual inhibition. She could never bring herself...

September 10, 2023“There in the ground, His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain, Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again…"— “In Christ Alone” In our grief, we...

September 9, 2023“Smile, God loves you!”   Dan’s father had a collection of inspirational sayings taped to his workbench, like “A job worth doing is worth doing right” and “Believe it can be done.”...

September 8, 2023“In order to lead a meaningful life, you need to cherish others, pay attention to human values and try to cultivate inner peace.” ― Dalai Lama   Linda spends her mornings walking...

September 7, 2023 In a 2017 interview with Family Friend Poems, John P. Read said poetry helped him grieve the loss of his wife: “I found that writing down my thoughts and feelings and sharing with...

September 6, 2023“We have always heard that time heals all wounds. This is not always true. Time that heals is time that is spent in the right way. It is supremely important that we understand that...

September 5, 2023“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” ― Robert Frost   The traditional way of looking at the grieving process suggests you’d eventually come...

September 4, 2023 During the 1960s, when everyone was trying to “find themselves,” a prose poem titled, “Desiderata,” which is Latin for “things desired,” could be found in poster shops and on...

September 3, 2023“Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, because hate in your heart will consume you too.” — Will Smith...

September 2, 2023“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” – John Taylor Some experiences are universal. They’re almost like road signs on the...

September 2, 2023“While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” — John Taylor   Some experiences are universal. They’re almost like road signs on...

September 1, 2023“In your darkest moments of despair, a friend’s hand on yours will get you through the worst.” – Taya Kyle     Janet was inconsolable after her father died. Nothing could help her....

August 31, 2023“Yo, Adrian. We did it … we did it.” — Rocky Balboa When Rocky Balboa’s wife, Adrian, died at 51 of ovarian cancer between the fifth and sixth films in the Rocky series, Sylvester...

August 30, 2023In his book “Prayers of Desperation: A Questioner’s Prayer for Answers in our Darkest Moment,” Bishop Robert Baker says that a tragedy in our lives, such as the loss of someone we...

August 29, 2023“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not...

August 28, 2023“Grief is forever. It doesn’t go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath.” — Jandy Nelson The first anniversary of Darlene’s husband’s death was in a few...

August 27, 2023“If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age. I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.” — George...

August 26, 2023“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.” — William James The great American philosopher William James who is considered...

August 25, 2023“When you visit a loved one’s grave, you’ll feel like they’re right beside you.” — Anonymous It had been a long time since Kathy visited her parents’ grave, which rested on a hill...

August 24, 2023“What now, my love, now that you left me? How can I live through another day?Watching my dreams turn into ashes, and all my hopes into bits of clay?”— Carl Sigman The song “What Now,...

August 23, 2023“You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life. And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you...

August 22, 2023 Death Is Nothing At All I have only slipped away into the next room.I am I and you are you,Whatever we were to each otherThat we are still.Call me by my old familiar name,Speak to me...

August 21, 2023“Mourning is a bitter road, but it can be useful to open our eyes to the life and sacred and irreplaceable value of each person, and at that moment one realizes how short the time...

August 20, 2023“I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”—Woody Allen Never underestimate the healing power of laughter, even in your grief. And never feel guilty about...

August 19, 2023“I see people, as they approach me, trying to make up their minds whether they’ll ‘say something about it’ or not. I hate if they do, and if they don’t.”— C.S. Lewis When you lose...

August 18, 2023“And I love you so.Though people ask me how,How I've lived till now.I tell them I don't know. I guess they understandHow lonely life has been.But life began againThe day you took my...

August 17, 2023“Lift up your two hands. Remember one is for helping others, while the other is for helping you. Give a helping hand to whoever needs help. I believe you need help too; give help to...

August 16, 2023“We would like to ignore suffering, hide it, and pretend it is not there, but reality forces us to face it in spite of ourselves. Some are made holy by embracing it, and others become...

August 15, 2023  God Keeps His Promises “I will stand by you…”(Joshua 1:9)“I will help you through…”(Hebrews 13:6)“When you’ve done all you can do and you can’t cope…”(Isaiah 40:29)“I will dry...

August 14, 2023 To Those I Love and Those Who Love Me When I am gone, release me, let me go.I have so many things to see and do.You mustn’t tie yourself to me with tears.Be thankful for our...

August 13, 2023“Faith is a bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.” — Rabindranath Tagore For several years, Sandy tried to track down her old friend, Sr. Catherine Theresa,...

August 12, 2023 I Hope You Dance I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,May you never take one single breath for granted,God forbid love ever...

August 11, 2023“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.”— Norman Cousins When someone we love dies, we find ourselves buffeted by emotional turmoil. There are common regrets such as, “I should have...

August 10, 2023“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”– Emily Dickinson When Ann’s husband Paul passed away, she went through boxes of cards that he had sent her throughout their...

August 9, 2023“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me...

August 8, 2023  Almost a Memory What is it that the song awakes in me?Almost a tear — almost a memory;A fleeting, lonely something that evades,A glimmering of memory that fadesAnd vanishes as I...

August 7, 2023“To live without hope is to cease to live.”– Fyodor Dostoyevsky   Dolores Hart was 24 when she left behind a successful career in Hollywood for a contemplative life as a nun....

August 6, 2023"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."— Havelock Ellis There will come a time in your healing journey when everyone will assume, “She’s over it...

August 5, 2023    “There are many saints to whom God has given the power to assist us in the necessities of life, but the power given to St. Joseph is unlimited: It extends to all our...

August 4, 2023“I read obituaries first thing in the morning. With a cup of coffee. This is NOT MORBID. Just epic. Maybe it’s a way of trying to figure out, before the day begins, what is important....

August 3, 2023David Harkins was an aspiring 23-year-old artist working as a baker in 1982 when he wrote a short prose poem in honor of a young woman who had been his model for several years....

August 2, 2023“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.”–Mahatma Gandhi Frank still remembers when his grandmother died at 83. He took the train back from...

August 1, 2023“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet.”— Carole King Many of us, especially those of us in troubled relationships have a tendency to lead people to believe everything is fine,...

July 31, 2023“Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.”― Jonathan Harnisch Charlie was at the coffee shop, kibitzing with the guys about the...

July 30, 2023“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”— Jesus John 14:1-6 is one of the most frequently read...

July 29, 2023 When I’m Gone By Mrs. Lyman Hancock “When I come to the end of my journeyAnd I travel my last weary mile,Just forget if you can, that I ever frownedAnd remember only the smile.”

July 28, 2023“LJ wrote: “We played this at my sister’s funeral. She had shown me the song around five months before she passed away, telling me she loves this song … with no idea what lie ahead. She...

July 27, 2023“Any woman who’d ever lost a child knew of the hollowness that remained within the soul.” – Brittainy C. Cherry After discovering her 19-year-old son Leandro had died from possible...

July 26, 2023“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein Through a curious series of events,...

July 25, 2023 “You have carried mein your heartall these years,now, I’ll always carry you in mine.”— John Mark Green

July 24, 2023 Prayer in Time of Suffering Behold me, my beloved Jesus,weighed down under the burden of my trials and sufferings.I cast myself at Your feetthat You may renew my strength and my...

July 23, 2023“It is not the objective proof of God’s existence that we want, but the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle...

July 22, 2023“When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions, who were...

July 21, 2023“Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them — they are counted among the blessed in the land… The...

July 20, 2023“The most beautiful people I've known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Grief...

July 19, 2023 Immortality By Clare Harner Do not standBy my grave, and weep.I am not there,I do not sleep—I am the thousand winds that blowI am the diamond glints in snowI am the sunlight on ripened...

July 18, 2023“For your every tear, know that I'll always be here. To bear one pain we both will share, know I'll never disappear.” – Anthony Liccione Men and women describe their grief differently....

July 17, 2023“We are under sentence of death, an extinction without remembrance or memorial, and we cling to life and to the present. This causes bitterness and anguish. But Christ will cure us of...

July 16, 2023“We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world – the company of those who have known suffering.” – Helen Keller When Peter died, everyone had a story to...

July 15, 2023“Comfort food—food that reassures—is different things to different people.” – David Tanis Grief will affect you in many ways, some obvious and others not-so-obvious. It is the...

July 14, 2023“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” – Nelson Mandela Decisions. Decisions. One of the smartest decisions that you can make when you are grieving is not to make any...

July 13, 2023 Share It By Helen Lowrie Marshall If grief is yours,Turn to a friend and share it;An understanding heartWill help you bear it.And if joy fills your heart,Let others shareYour...

July 12, 2023“Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” –...

July 11, 2023“Oh, will you never let me be? Oh, will you never set me free?The chains that bind us are all around us. There's nothing left that I can seeThose little things remain that bring me...

July 10, 2023 The Window by Rumi Your body is away from me
but there is a window open
from my heart to yours. From this window, like the moon,I keep sending news secretly.

July 9, 2023“Beloved Mother, so stricken with grief, help us to bear our own suffering with courage and love…” – Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows Perhaps the greatest pain when a loved one dies,...

July 8, 2023“With each opportunity before me, God presented me with a choice. I could accept his offerings, his wisdom, his grace. Or I could choose to hold onto the pain, the anger and the...

July 7, 2023“I go to nature to be soothed, healed and have my senses put in order.” – John Burroughs As adults we often find ourselves more separated from the natural world than we were as children,...

July 6, 2023“Lord Jesus Crucified, have mercy on us and those who will die this day.” – Traditional prayer for the dying Fernanda Moreira has seen the face of the dying. She still recalls the weeks...

July 5, 2023“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love...

July 4, 2023A Nation's Strength By Ralph Waldo Emerson What makes a nation's pillars highAnd its foundations strong?What makes it mighty to defyThe foes that round it throng? It is not gold. Its...

July 3, 2023“Each one teach one” – African proverb During the years of slavery in the United States, when black people were denied education, an African proverb emerged that urged,”Each one teach...

July 2, 2023“Tears water our growth.” – William Shakespeare Most of us have never heard of St. Monegundis. She’s not as familiar as St. Patrick, St. Joseph and St. Ann. Her name means “one who loves...

July 1, 2023 Not How Did He Die   by Summer Sandercox Not how did he die, but how did he live? Not what did he gain, but what did he give? These are the units to measure the worth Of a man as a man,...

June 30, 2023“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” – Edward Abbey When Carolyn visited her...

June 29, 2023“Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.” – Virginia Satir The separation that death brings affects us in...

June 28, 2023“Your body cannot heal without play.Your mind cannot heal without laughter.Your soul cannot heal without joy.” – Catherine Rippenger Fenwick In your journey to healing, you will...

June 27, 2023“I wanted to talk about it. Damn it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell. I wanted to shout. But all I could was whisper, “I’m fine.” – Unknown It’s a common practice for healthcare...

June 26, 2023 Afterglow By Helen Lowrie MarshallI’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo, whispering softly...

June 25, 2023“Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” – Thomas Moore In 1863, a French Jesuit, Francois Rene Blot, published a small book titled, “In Heaven We’ll Meet Again,” which consisted...

June 24, 2023“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is...

June 23, 2023“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but — I hope — into a better shape.” –...

June 22, 2023“We always tell ourselves that the people we love will be around forever, until one day, they aren’t anymore.” – Kirsten Robinson After Greg’s mother died, life seemed to fall apart....

June 21, 2023“If love transcends time and space, yet is present in time and space, there is no reason why deceased loved ones may not on occasion communicate in some way with those still living in...

June 20, 2023 “It does not matter how long you are spending on the Earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have...

June 19, 2023"f you've got to my age, you've probably had your heart broken many times. So it's not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it." –...

June 18, 2023 Mirror - A Poem for Dad  by J. Allen Shaw Dad, I am often told I am just like you.I am honored beyond measure if that is true.You were the best example of what a man should be.I am...

June 17, 2023Like painted kites, those days and nights went flyin' byThe world was new beneath a bright blue umbrella sky,Then softer than a piper man, one day it called to you,And I lost you, I...

June 16, 2023"Love is not all hearts, butterflies in the stomach and smiling couple selfies. Love is not just a fantasy land. I believe that couples in a long-term relationship will one day surely...