Grief isn’t just one experience that hangs out for a bit and then disappears. Grief is a very long road broken up into shorter segments that piggyback onto one another for the remainder of a griever’s life. Outsiders often mistake grief for a one-and-done experience: someone dies, you get sad, you deal with it, you’reContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Persevering”
Tag Archives: compassion
Monday Meditation: Lie Fallow
Fallowing is a farming practice whereby a field is left unsown for a period of time to let the soil recover its nutrients and restore its moisture content. This recovery time later allows that same soil to grow a larger and better crop when next planted. The “rest” time granted to grievers by friends, family,Continue reading “Monday Meditation: Lie Fallow”
Monday Meditation: The Lonely Holiday
The Christmas season is upon us. It is a bittersweet time for grievers. First Christmases without a loved one are difficult, of course. But it’s the second, third, and rest of the Christmases without your loved one that may be the saddest. The first year, you have a focus: making it through. The next, youContinue reading “Monday Meditation: The Lonely Holiday”
Monday Meditation: The High Road
One of the unexpected challenges of grieving (for me at least) was dealing with grief supporters who, instead of supporting my path, used their time to put down my choices and my grieving process. I tried to take the high road–but I didn’t always succeed. Exhaustion, the need to be understood, and shear shock gotContinue reading “Monday Meditation: The High Road”
Monday Meditation: Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving 2020 is bittersweet. We are isolating. Many of us have lost loved ones. Many may be spending the day alone because of the pandemic. Many Americans are out of work or have lost family businesses because of COVID shutdowns. Many families are struggling to put food on their tables. We are an intensely divided nationContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Thanksgiving”
Monday Mediation: A Test of Integrity
Nothing tests us like distress. The same distress we experience also tests those around us. Distress, struggle, trauma, death–they challenge our character, our honesty, our morality, our honor. Grievers must make difficult decisions and choose from options they don’t always like in order to make the best of the situation at hand. Sometimes those decisionsContinue reading “Monday Mediation: A Test of Integrity”
Monday Meditation: Transform Through Compassion
It’s difficult to extend compassion to, or forgive, someone who has hurt you or people you know. Grieving should be an experience in which there is an abundance of compassion, love, understanding, and acceptance. However, because of our society’s “get over it” attitude and the tendency to believe vulnerability is a weakness, grieving can becomeContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Transform Through Compassion”
Monday Meditation: Survival Requires Love
When we think about what humans need to survive, we often reduce the list to the basic essentials: food, clothing, shelter, and water. Perhaps we can add an income with which to pay for these basics. What gets omitted is interesting: love and compassion.
Monday Meditation: The Virtue of Compassion
The Trouble with Coronavirus: How COVID-19 is Challenging American Acceptance of Death
Like many people, I am interested in information about COVID-19. I read news and journal articles about the pandemic and the scientific communities prescribed methods of handling it. I follow the debates about masks and the realness of the disease. I watch people flood beaches and vacation as though the virus isn’t spreading. I listenContinue reading “The Trouble with Coronavirus: How COVID-19 is Challenging American Acceptance of Death”
Monday Meditation: Open Your Focus to Compassion
When we focus on ourselves while suffering, when we wallow in our despair, it is easy for us to shut out other people’s experiences and other events in the world. While we need to take care of ourselves to heal from, and process, our suffering, we can become so taken with ourselves that it beginsContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Open Your Focus to Compassion”
Grief 101: How Long Does Grief Last?
Answer: As long as it needs.
Monday Meditation: Sharing Brings Healing
Part of the healing process is sharing with other people who care. -Jerry Cantrell There is a preconception that people should keep their suffering to themselves. Sad or unhappy conversations should not take place. We can only publically project strength, happiness, and confidence. This is nonsense. Healing requires sharing our pain with others, and inContinue reading “Monday Meditation: Sharing Brings Healing”
New Year, New Blog
I have been away for a while. My last post from three years ago probably gives you a clue as to why. My mother died on March 5, 2015.
A.N.Carroll 