This poem inspired me to consider all the things, from my recent and distant past, that buoy me. A kiss on the forehead from my brother. Playtime with our family dog. The feel of the grass underneath bare feet and the tree’s bark against my palm. I hope this poem inspires you to consider all the things that buoy you, that you want to hold onto. Continue reading

Living with intention is not about what you do, but how you do it. For me, living a meaningful life after loss has been a journey of self-understanding, self-advocacy, and spiritual maturity. I learned that I needed help, and that it's okay to ask for the help you need, especially when your quality of life is at stake. I also discovered this big truth: life is what you make it.

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This poem, titled "Hurricane," is an example, as all true poetry tends to be, of exploring an element of life with such clarity and finding cause to look inward. If we're mindful and willing, what happens around us can be a catalyst for self-understanding. We learn that we see in the world what we carry in our hearts.

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By giving meaning to hardship through words, you can structure a life around your values, your strengths, and your intentions. You get to choose how you show up. I created these affirmations to help us fully inhabit ourselves and our more difficult experiences, so we can tell a story of strength and perseverance.

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This standalone verse you might've seen circling the internet: I have not heard your voice in years, but my heart has conversations with you every day. I call it Heart Conversations, an ode to the intimate dialogue that carries on after someone we love dies. I thought it time to revisit this poem and that conversation.

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Together, it's easier to make space for grief and for the love and joy that it stems from, which is the same love it inevitably returns to, if we allow that spaciousness. May these quotes about grief comfort you, validate what you feel, and bring a little more light to the holidays. You belong in the light, too.

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When we carry the people we've loved in our hearts, in our conversations, and into the work we do and the actions we take, we bring them forward and allow them to not only be an element in our lives still, but to make an impact. In that same way, they bring us forward, toward them. We do this thing, together. We rebuild, together.

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My favorite poems about grief do either one of two things: express my own experience in words in a way I never could or call on me to think differently about my experience. It’s a special thing when a poem can do both. Today I’m paying forward a beautiful grief poem written by Denise Levertov. May it call up your compassion the way it does for me.

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Trying to take good care of yourself while you're grieving is no small act of kindness. It is, rather, a very large gesture of respect not just for yourself as you process your grief, but for the people you've lost and for the people who are still here. Continue reading

Over a decade after losing my brother to suicide, I still wonder “Why him?” and grieve for what could have been. We need to be allowed those times, too. We need to say “Let me be angry.” “Let me have this pain.” “Let me find my way through it.” We must be allowed to be real and human. There is always work to be done.

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