Please don't compare your grief to someone else's. Everyone has a different journey, personal biology, resources, and support available to them to get through their loss. Grief isn't a competition. Trust that you're doing the best you can.

My mother died in an unexpected accident at her home on Friday night in Baltimore. I want to take a brief moment to honor her life. She was admitted into the first ever female class at John’s Hopkins (a huge accomplishment, because before that, it was men only). She ran a

Just a reminder that if you are a parent, your children should not be your safe space. Enlisting your children to be your emotional caretaker is emotional neglect. And some consider that to be abuse.

“Have a beautiful, wonderful Mother’s Day if it is a holiday that brings you joy, but just be conscious that for many, many people, it isn’t. Proceed according. Deal?” ~@ANNELAMOTT

Missing my Mom this morning and somehow in cleaning I stumbled across several funeral programs for my family in Alabama? Like…there’s a funeral program for a relative that was born in 1905 in Alabama. Do you know what a genealogical goldmine this is? 🥹

A bit of comfort goes a long way.

@Learnaboutgrief The first new year without my mother was the hardest because it was the first one in my lifetime that my mother never got to see a day of. Hugs to those going through that first now.

One emotion doesn't cancel out another. The human mind and body are equipped to tenderly hold both.

This makes grief one of society’s most misunderstood and profoundly difficult experiences that cannot be resolved by closure if there's even such a thing, but by the slow measure of acceptance that only the passage of time and words of comfort can provide.

Meeting people where they are is such a beautiful way to express that you see them, accept them, and care.

💙

People run away from emotions that feel uncomfortable, heavy, or scary. When they witnesses someone else in pain, it can be an unwelcome reminder of the hurt they're trying to surpress. Sometimes, avoiding you feels like protecting them from facing themselves.

The part of grief that often goes overlooked is how we often lose connection with ourselves after trauma, hardship, and loss.

Local to Western New York? Join me and @VillageENGAGED for an author talk (by me!) and community discussion on grief at the holidays.

Grief pulls us in many directions.

The grief myth we are told is that the longer they are dead, the less we miss them. It seems that the reality is that we find ways to appreciate them more. We find certain jokes funnier, lessons they taught more meaningful, and the absence that much harder.

@Learnaboutgrief

I am only realizing now that #grieftwitter is a thing lol do you use it?

Feeling less safe after loss? It's not an illusion. Grief is a life disruptor and tears away the stable world we knew. This unfortunately makes us susceptible to feeling less safe with ourselves, others, and the environments we move through.

Eulogizing a living person caries the pain of knowing their alive to the world but "dead" in every way you once saw life.