I came across a post I'd shared on Facebook on this day, just shy of three months after Bret left this life. Things still felt surreal as I clung to the remnants of what had been. We'd been together nearly ...
The Legend of the Dogwood According to an old and cherished Easter legend, the dogwood tree was once very different. It grew tall, strong, and straight — its wood firm and sturdy, prized for building. Some say it was ...
There is no timeline for grief; we grieve for as long as we need. My timeline, however, has a new update: I am no longer in any kind of active grief. I think I've been here for a while now, ...
I read a blog, "He Feels Farther Away," by Dorothy Swanson about what she calls “the middle” part of her grief journey. It’s the place we come to after the shield of shock has long worn off, the tears ...
In the tender season of widowhood, when days feel quieter and the familiar rhythm of shared life shifted, it's easy to wonder if purpose slipped away with your beloved. Yet Scripture gently reminds us God never wastes a life, a ...
It wasn't too long after Bret left us that I * thought * I made peace with the whole thing. Or at least as much as I could have at that given point in time. I forgave him very early ...
Bret's "angelversary" snuck up on me this year. At first, that shocked me. But then I realized that it has been nearly a decade, so maybe I shouldn't be quite so shocked after all. A lot of time has passed, ...
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time to live and a time to die. I know that humans are mortal. There comes a time when each of us will leave our human body. Some ...
This time last year, I had a feeling that things might be different for me a year from then. I didn't know how, but I made sure to make a mental note about how different things were going to be. ...
I recently started a ministry to widows at my church. As I was preparing for my meeting during this Thanksgiving, I came across a wonderful story from history I never knew. Many of us have heard President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, ...