Thursday, July 9, 2026
Post-traumatic growth is the scientifically documented experience of being changed for the better — not in spite of grief, but because of it. Here’s what post-traumatic growth actually means, the 5 areas it appears in, and how bereaved people slowly grow around their loss.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
I reread the rabbi’s eulogy from my beloved sister Jane’s funeral. He said, “There is no satisfactory answer to understanding why bad things happen to good people. Not all questions have answers. Unanswered “whys” are part of life. The way to face tragedy is with love. Use the love we had for Jane to forgive ourselves.” Focusing on his words helped me knock down roadblocks to forgive myself.” Forgiveness for me was not a quick fix, magic bullet, instant gratification, but a long, arduous triathlon. I needed to program my heart and mind in sync to forgive myself and […]
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
There is a phone booth in the middle of the desert in Joshua Tree. It was installed by Colin Campbell and Gail Lerner in honor of their two children, Ruby and Hart, who died in a 2019 car crash. It lives out there amid the tall cholla cacti and the wind that sweeps circles into the salt and sand. I have been thinking about this telephone lately, of how few spaces we have to offload our grief. In her book, Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, Hope Edelman offers a handful of events that she believes have the potential to change […]
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Grief Changes You – Awareness Helps You to Rebuild Loss changes you. It’s natural to feel lonely and unsure when someone important is no longer there. When depression that follows loss is part of the picture, everything can feel heavier and harder to move through. For a long time, that weight can feel constant – like you’re moving through fog. Separation can also create a space you don’t recognize, but it can also help you see yourself without old patterns or expectations. That distance can feel uncomfortable at first, but it is often where something begins to shift. You start […]
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Grief seldom moves in straight lines. Rather, grief can be more like the ever-changing weather over the ocean or like the relentless tides against a rocky coast. Some days it is mist. Some days it is stormy. And sometimes, it becomes stone. I meet people years after a loss who share, “I know it has been a long time, but it still feels like yesterday.” Their lives have continued. They work. They parent. They show up. Yet their bodies remain braced, as if the moment of loss is still unfolding. This is where the conversation about psychedelic-assisted grief therapy begins. […]
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Have you ever lost someone close, and in the brain fog of grief, wondered if you might forget some of the things you loved most about them? Their infectious belly laugh, extravagant generosity, or maybe their unconditional love for people? I get it. Since losing several of my closest and favorite family members- my beloved Mom, Dad, Nana, sister-in-love, Kay, and most recently, my “splendiferous” (his word) brother Mike, I’ve been trying to dig deep and remember exactly what it was that made each of their lives so memorable and magnificent. What if you could be the […]
Friday, April 10, 2026
I’ve come to believe that some souls simply aren’t meant to stay here long. And I don’t say that lightly. It’s not something I understand in any earthly way, because truthfully, I don’t. There’s no logic that can explain why someone we love so deeply could be here one day and gone the next. If there’s a reason, I wish I knew it. But I don’t. What I do believe is that we’re each sent here to touch certain lives. To love certain people. To leave imprints that carry on long after we’re gone. Maybe our time, no matter how […]
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Grieving Who We Were Before the World Changed I didn’t need another reason to mentally and emotionally struggle. It’s what I have always known, what continues for me. There is a quiet kind of grief that doesn’t always come with a clear ending. It’s the grief for the version of ourselves that existed before Covid struck, before uncertainty became the norm, and before we were reshaped by it. We not only lost loved ones, but we lost ourselves. We were quietly expected to continue, to move forward, but not everyone has been able to do that. Long-Covid is something many […]
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Skating is a sport I shared with my beloved sisters. When we were young girls, we proudly carried our skates in plaid bags and raced to be the first ones on the ice. Margie, my older sister, the most talented, Jane, the youngest, was athletic, and I, the middle sister, a bit of a klutz. Little did I know that skating would become the chord that would bind me, honor, and remember, and forever find peace and joy with my sisters. Throughout my life, somehow the ice called me, a pull I never quite understood, my happy place, where […]
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Loss can feel like the moment the world shifts beneath your feet. You look around and everything appears the same, yet nothing feels the same. And still, even in the deepest ache, something extraordinary begins to stir. I have spent more than four decades companioning people through loss, and I have learned: Grief is not the end of your story. It is the beginning of your transformation. Loss shakes us to our core and reveals what truly matters. It invites us gently, quietly, and at our own pace, to discover strengths, truths, and inner resources we never knew we possessed. […]
Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
