Pull Them to the Light
“This doesn’t mean that we act like the pain doesn’t exist. That’s called being numb. But in the light, like a flower opens in the sun’s warmth and nourishment, the light can make a broken heart come...
View ArticleOn Clinging Together
By Allison Gauvin He’s not seventeen anymore. The Jeep he drove sits in a junkyard in the hills of North Carolina and the surfboard that he once strapped to the top was sold many summers ago. Lines...
View ArticleTake My Hand
“I don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve faced. I see you. I see your broken heart. I see my own, and I’ve seen the light. Take my hand. Let me show you the way.” Nearly fifteen months ago, I...
View ArticleMy Child’s Terminal Illness Was a Gift
By Victoria Strong When my husband and I were told our giggling 5-month-old with perfect pudgy thigh rolls was going to die, we grieved for all she would never get to do and all we’d never get to...
View ArticleIt’s Okay To Mention Him
She never met him. We only became friends several months ago, nearly a year after his death. I told her stories. I said his name. I mentioned him from time to time in her presence. She has seen him in...
View ArticleParenting After Loss
By Michelle Villalobos The sleep still in our eyes, the early morning sun shining through her golden hair as she twirls in front of me, her giggles dancing through the room. I sit on the couch, and...
View ArticleThe Girl Who Came Alive
Dead. The word is an absolute, especially when it was spoken of someone she loves. Dead. How it felt to lose them, as if her insides crumbled, as if her blood kept pumping but her heart stopped. In...
View ArticleGrief Does Not Negate Strength
“Stay strong.” It’s a simple admonition meant to inspire and to give me a kick in the pants. I get it. I can always use a good kick in the pants. And believe me, I’m all about finding strength and...
View ArticleTo the Heart Parents
I know you. I know you far too well. I see you, your weary eyes, your determination, the one that they inspired. And I know them. Though each is unique and special and irreplaceable, I know these kids....
View ArticleThe Scars That Remind Me That I’m Still Alive
By Kristin Shaw At one time, I prayed for him, my first husband, to love me. I tried to love him hard enough to love me back. I tried to love enough for both of us. It wasn’t enough. I curled up in the...
View ArticleStay Soft
Street smarts never came naturally to me. I was born with a ready brain and a heart that was uninhibited and ready to wrap the whole world in it’s embrace. It didn’t take long for me to learn that the...
View ArticleSpiritually Wounded After Suffering
By Franchesca Cox Last weekend we took a little family road trip, and some things just happen in car rides. Who can explain it? Maybe it is the absence of distractions, presence of intimate spacing and...
View ArticleChoose to Hear Love Instead
My friend had just had a miscarriage. She shared about it online, openly and bravely. She shared about her grief. She shared about her sorrow. She shared about the pain and how much she missed her...
View ArticleHiding
By Jessica Lindberg Hiding. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about hiding. Maybe because I’ve been doing a lot of it. Hiding can feel safe and anonymous. It’s hard to be anonymous when you live in a...
View ArticleOn Guilt and Shame
“When am I going to stop blaming myself?” She was desperate for relief from the weight of guilt. Her son died the year before and the “whys” and “what ifs” played like a constant movie reel in her...
View ArticleIt’s Okay
There are no rules in grief. It’s something I’ve read and have even written myself at least one hundred times. And yet, I am only now realizing that for the past… The post It’s Okay appeared first on...
View ArticleWhy?
I’ve never been a critical thinker or considered myself an intellectual. Introspective? Entirely, but asking the hard questions has never been my forte. Growing up, in the early days of school… The...
View ArticleBe That Love
You’re only three now. You don’t know that this world is filled with heartache. You don’t know the pain that rips through hearts every single day. Lives are exploited, wounded, stolen… The post Be That...
View ArticleIt’s Not About Forgetting
It’s not about forgetting, Or acting like the scars aren’t there, Or trying not to remember your face. Or the curve of your smile. It’s not about avoiding The pain and… The post It’s Not About...
View ArticleThe Sacred Task
Sometimes, life is about perspective, about the lens with which we view our stories and our circumstances. In the world of parents who have outlived their children, we have to learn… The post The...
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