Category: Grief & Grieving
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Easter during a Pandemic
(I wrote this for Easter 2020, but it’s still applicable in Easter 2021. Published in The Christian Century.) Yesterday was Good Friday. Instead of working on a sermon or reading scripture to follow Jesus along the Via Dolorosa, I spent hours on the phone with my elderly mother, trying to help her master Zoom technology.…
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Body Memories of Grief
Do you sometimes have body memories — that is, memories triggered by bodily experiences? Today I sat down in a dentist chair, opened my mouth for Abby, my dental hygienist, and just like that, felt a piercing sense of grief.
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When Grief Sucks Us Dry: A Funeral & “Fun Home” On the Same Day
When life sucks the juice out of us — and it will — try immersing yourself in someone’s life story. Whether obituary or memoir. Whether celebrated or unknown. Whether full of pain or full of redemption. The long view of a life will restore your hope. The creative juice that was poured into the telling…
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BIRTHED: Finding Grace through Infertility, a book review
Do you know someone who is struggling with infertility? Perhaps this is the story you live, but hide from others. Or perhaps you have a different but similar sort of heartache. Do you know the feelings of repeated loss and grief, which bring a sense of hopelessness? My friend Elizabeth Hagan has just written a…
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Life is Fragile
. . . give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous . . .
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Preaching Lazarus
I’ll admit it, I always feel sorry for Lazarus. Nobody asked him if he wanted to come out of that tomb.