Dealing with Grief and Fears

At the onset of Covid, I don’t think that any of us dreamed that we would still be restricted by it over a year and a half later. I gave the whole situation three months tops… shows what I know. For those of you who had the foresight to invest in more leggings…

Have you ever gone to an estate sale? As you walk through the home of the previous owner, what thoughts are in your head? What are you feeling? I have found myself having difficulty not feeling like an intruder or feeling guilty or disrespectful…

We all have watershed moments in the course of our lives. Days when, from then on, things become notably different. The day you left home, the day you got married (or moved in together), the day you had your first child – all days signifying…

Rituals are actions that symbolically connect us to something that is meaningful. They can be comforting and can help us express feelings, bring about a sense of closure, or keep an important part of the past alive. Rituals mark time as well as create time…

It seems social activities are opening back up to varying degrees depending on where you live. For me here in Oregon, there are opportunities to gather, attend live events and shop without masks, at least at the moment. As I begin to be more active…

Unwelcome visitors have a tendency to pop in at the most inopportune and unexpected times. The telephone is just such an intruder, its shrill ring interrupting sacred downtime. Back when we were still tethered to landlines, sans caller ID…

Technology is all around us. There is no escaping it these days. But the longer you avoid it, the worse your apprehensions will get. In my experience of working with people and techie things, I’ve found that fear of looking or feeling stupid…

If you were to meet me, you’d think I am cheerful, outgoing, optimistic, energetic. And I am all these things. But there’s “the me you can’t see,” as Oprah says. That me, until I started therapy, was ruminating about the past, grieving…

After I had lost a 42-year-old husband, a 50-year-old ex-husband and a 75-year-old live-in partner, my family and friends jokingly called me, “The Black Widow.” The deaths occurred under different circumstances and were all devastating…

There has been so much conversation, all around the world, about the value of life once a person reaches 65. Ultimately, this begs the question: what is lacking within us that we can so casually discuss the disposability of our elders?