I listened to “The Promise” the other day while playing with my daughter. I hadn’t heard it in years. Amidst pandemic uncertainties, my first Mother’s Day as a motherless mother, and missing my mom, the lyrics touched me deeply. The first Mother’s Day without my mother was difficult. The ones since then have largely passedContinue reading “Monday Meditation: The Promise (Tracy Chapman)”
Author Archives: ancarroll
Monday Meditation: May the Fourth
It is May the Fourth, and Star Wars Day offers a helpful meditation on life and our place in it. Every living thing is connected through the Force. Every living thing also contains a piece of the Force. The Jedi, wielders of the Light Side, do so in service of others.
New Affiliate Membership
In an effort to support small businesses through this time pandemic period (and beyond), I have become an affiliate member at Bookshop.org, a website that connects book buyers with independent booksellers nationwide. Any books I recommend on my blog will be linked to my shop page at Bookshop.org. I earn a small commission from theseContinue reading “New Affiliate Membership”
7 Ways to Cultivate Inner Stillness While Grieving in Isolation
Cultivating inner stillness while grieving during a pandemic is difficult. However, finding stillness is necessary when processing grief and adapting to post-loss life. One way to approach the search for stillness is by taking a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday work and home responsibilities. When you are sheltering-in-place during a pandemic, thereContinue reading “7 Ways to Cultivate Inner Stillness While Grieving in Isolation”
Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience
Self-isolation and social distancing require a great deal of patience. We have to wait out the run of a highly communicable virus. We have to wait out a difficult economic situation. We have to wait out loneliness. If we’re grieving, we have to wait out the chance to grieve communally and receive comfort for ourContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Waiting with Patience”
Release Guilt
After a loss, you may wonder if you did enough for your loved one, if you were nice enough, if you spent enough time with them. In their book I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye, Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair call this the “ ‘If Only’ game,” a mind game grievers play to controlContinue reading “Release Guilt”
Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls
In a state of social distancing, we are living in a type of fishbowl, and sometimes a fishbowl within a fishbowl. We can’t do anything for our loved ones who are languishing from COVID-19. We can’t do anything for our family or friends who are watching their COVID-positive loved ones and waiting, from more thanContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Living in Fishbowls”
Virtual Connections and Grieving During COVID-19
In my forthcoming book, Untangling Life After Loss: A Griever’s Guide to Creating a Self-Care Plan, I offer suggestions for how to approach grief in your everyday life. COVID-19 has turned many of those suggestions sideways as social distancing measures throw a curve into what could be termed “normal” grieving processes. An experience that onceContinue reading “Virtual Connections and Grieving During COVID-19”
Monday Meditation: A Marathon with Grit
Backbone. Constancy. Fortitude. Guts. Spunk. Grit.
The Grief of Social Distance
It’s only been a few weeks since social distancing measures were first employed in our state. It’s only been a few days since the governor enacted a “stay at home” order. For others, social distancing and shelter in place orders have been in place longer. Now, after the orders have been given and the noveltyContinue reading “The Grief of Social Distance”
Monday Meditation: From Suffering to Inspiration
This is a horrible and scary time. The majority of our society has never dealt with something like this before. Some lived through the Great Depression, where they saw more than toilet paper depleted from store shelves. Others lived through the turmoil of WWII, when homes were destroyed and food and goods were rationed. AContinue reading “Monday Meditation: From Suffering to Inspiration”
Mourning in a Time of Social Distance
It’s the first full week of “social distancing,” a new term in our lexicon that basically means “stay away from people,” in this case, by staying at home. While the death toll around the world increases, it’s easy to see where an observation about grief might fit. People are dying from a new and thereforeContinue reading “Mourning in a Time of Social Distance”
Monday Meditation: Resilience Goes Far
Right now our resilience, our ability to recover from difficulties and to maintain mental toughness, is being tested by a pandemic. Every day we have to commit to renewing that resilience for another 24-hour period without certainty of when the current stressors will end. Though it might feel impossible at times, we can do it.Continue reading “Monday Meditation: Resilience Goes Far”
Monday Meditation: Look Around You
It is easy to become caught up in day-to-day activities and ignore our surroundings. It is especially easy to do this when swirling in the middle of grief. Sometimes we have to force ourselves out of our comfort zone (or current zone) to examine what is happening around us.
Monday Meditation: After Winter, Always Spring
The seasons are inevitable. Grief has it’s seasons as well. Even after the most grueling “grief winter,” an energizing springs emerges and reminds us there is still beauty and warmth in the world.
