You find a deer mouse lifeless at your doorstep and bury it in the yard. Place your pencil on the page where you imagine the grave. Now begin to trace the contour of the mouse: the skeleton, the pulmonary system, the limbic system. Next, trace along the lines of pote...

As humans, we are born kicking and screaming with fight laced deep within our bones. This is something we are all given, to use in times to protect ourselves from the world when it decides to go against us. That in itself, is an easy enough enemy to perceive, an outs...

Spell out the person or groups name vertically. Use each letter of the name and come up with a word that begins with that letter and describes you loved one(s). L ovely I ncomparable L ife of the party Y oung at heart B rave E nergetic A rtistic N ovel Ma...

Often when we go through a major change in our lives, we unknowingly mourn the loss of that version of ourselves. This death of a self can also occur through good change, and we get confused about why we feel sad when our life changes for the better. Acknowledging this...

Losing people can leave us with unresolved feelings. Write a letter to your lost one(s). This can be someone you knew, or someone you never met (such as an ancestor)Tell them what you wish you could tell them now. Do you miss them? Is there a life event you want to s...

Our world has been in disarray from COVID-19 since March. If you’re like me and have a paper calendar, the following months look strange, empty, and not even representative of our own lives. Spend time going back through your calendar. Look at each day; try to reme...

Try to create space in your mind and heart and take three deep breaths. Then Remember there is no "right" way to grieve. This is a personal process and there is no time limit....

Take a Cue From Poetry What is your favorite poem? Put it in your own words. In the original poem below, I substitute the word hope for grief from the first line of Emily Dickinson’s poem “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”, then riff on it. For example: �...

Meditation: "In the future the dead is all of us - jumped out of the earth to dance again. Every step a reminder of rhythm. Woven into our clothes gleam - dragonfly winged - I remember the good ghosts and carry them with me. Jump out! Back to finish what they started. H...

Find something that you think your loved one would have loved and love it for them. It doesn’t have to be anything special or perfect. Maybe it is a simple object in your home, outside in nature, or somewhere online. It could be a technology gadget, a small trinket, o...

Look up to the stars, and listen. What are they telling you? What are they whispering to you across the light years? Across the 5.88 trillion miles that light travels every 365 days? From every anniversary to the next? The points of light that we see suspended in time a...

Elisabeth Elliot wrote a simple definition of suffering in her book Suffering is Never for Nothing. She defines suffering in this way: Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don’t have. In relation to 2020, list things you have, but don’t w...

“Measure thy life by loss instead of gain, not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth. For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice and whoso suffers most hast most to give.” – Ugo Bassi Looking back on this difficult season of 2020, consider wh...

A meditation in three aspects Science has shown that trauma is passed down generationally through our DNA. In this time of forced isolation, take a moment to meditate on this healing. There are no right answers in this exercise. Only what is best for you. If you c...

Hold a hand, Hold the hand of your lost one, your beloved, the hand of the being who haunts you. And when you become accustomed to the deep presence of the absence hold any hand, your lover’s hand, your friend’s hand, your mother’s hand, your own hand....

What do we do simply for beauty or love or joy? What do we do to enrich others? We spend so much of our lives shuttling ourselves from home to work and back again, sometimes losing sight of our humanity along the way. So many of our actions are performed from a place...

Sometimes I don't know what to do with myself, and I think of all the things I'd be doing if I were outside and how much things have changed since all of this started. The family and friends I haven’t been able to hug and all of the places I haven’t been to. But,...

Radical acceptance is a path. Equanimity is a goal. Five hundred years ago lived Akbar, third emperor of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. Seeking wisdom from his advisor Birbal, Akbar asked, “What words will always give me counsel, in times of feast and famine, in...

“Flowers in April” addresses the grieving process of losing a loved one and the search of closure. The owl in the painting represents silence of solitude to the people who passed away during the pandemic of Covid-19. The color green of the woman figure represents th...

Sometimes large waves of grief overcome me during the oddest parts of the day, while I’m at work or walking to the subway. I don’t always have an outlet in those moments. Life doesn’t always make time for the waves that overwhelm us. This ritual of “losing it" h...