Good Grief

What are the practices that can help us find peace after loss? Nothing takes grief away, but many practices help us to support ourselves in grief, to go deeply into our own territory and find our way to the new. Claire Willis, familiar with grief herself, shares the practices she has found helpful in her book Opening to Grief. Always gentle and accepting of what we may not be ready to try, she giv...

Malcolm Stern had worked hard to develop his inner life and bring his best to his family, friends and the clients he worked with as a group therapist. But when his daughter Melissa ended her life, it became crystal clear how these skills were supporting him through the worst time in his life. He realized that they were the bedrock of his ability to support himself through his grief. Out of this re...

Nothing prepares a mother for hearing that their child is transgender. Along with protectiveness and confusion comes the stunning fact that the picture you had of your child must die and a new one take its place. Paria Hassouri faced this process when her child let her know she was a girl at 14. How did she not know? How would she protect her? How would they navigate the change; in their family, a...

The death of Shelby Forsythia's mother when she was 21 plunged her into a depth of grief she wasn't prepared for. But then it led her to her calling; to guide others through the rugged terrain of loss. Her book, Your Grief Your Way, offers a daily guide of support for grievers, giving them permission to follow the unique twists and turns of their individual mourning and offering practical experime...

The losses that come with addiction are very clear to the people who love the addict. Addiction robs a person, and their family and community, of the person that could have been. And then sometimes it steals a life completely. Rose Andersen knows first hand how addiction affects a person, because she herself travelled that road, eventually finding her sobriety and a life she wanted to live. Her si...

Rissi Palmer's mother was larger than life. She only became more so when she died when Rissi was just a child. How did that loss affect her going forward? Without the chance to define her own identity, different from her mother's, and mature in her sense of who she was with her mother present, how could she find her way? The loss of a mother affects their children throughout all the landmarks and...

On a family adventure while white water rafting, Irene O'Garden had to depend on her siblings to navigate the river. For her, the trip connected to a life long effort to heal and to come to terms with her childhood. And although she was focused purely on survival during the trip, she found that afterwards, something had changed for her. She had added a new chapter to her lifelong journey. From the...

In the seventy years Tim Seelig has lived, half was spent as a religious music conductor from a famous Christian family. But when Tim came out at 35, that life was over. He was unceremoniously ousted from everything and everyone he knew. His highly respected career was also over. And his second life began, as a conductor of LGBTQ choruses. This new life culminated in Tim becoming the director of t...

Why would anyone offer to listen, free of charge, to strangers as they share their deepest experiences? When Helena Dea Bala found herself confronting a profound lack of meaning in her life, she had a surprising and unexpected conversation with a homeless man she met outside the building where she worked. The depth of their sharing was so alive she wanted more. Eventually she would leave the caree...

Needing a job to make ends meet, Gregor Collins stumbled into one of the most meaningful three years of his life. With absolutely no experience as a personal caregiver, his friend begged him to work for Maria Altmann, the inspiration for the film Woman in Gold. Having survived the holocaust she went on to live a life filled with meaning and depth, and also great love. She then pursued what many th...

Dena Taylor's honest and excellent book, I Don't Wanna Be Pink, was a manuscript when she joined us on Good Grief in it's first year, 2014. Fast forward to 2020 and it is out in the world, still moving and hilarious. How has Dena's experience facing a breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and all the fears that come along with that impacted her since? And does she still hate all the pink ribbons and...

Many people believe that grief can be completed and that when it is, we will have closure. We will no longer need to remember and think about the person we've lost. But more and more, we are recognizing that remembering our person and sharing our grief is a healthy way forward. As a response to her own loss, Fran Solomon founded Heal Grief, establishing on line program designed to connect grievers...

In a world where we need more civility, substance and compassion, Rabbi Daniel Cohen set out to try to define what it means to live a purposeful life. How do we define what really matters so that our lives match our deep beliefs and inspirations? Hi book, What Will They Say About Me when I'm Gone?, explores the questions of meaning through guided questioning and meaningful stories about people who...

When Janna Lopez hit 50, her world seemed to fall apart. In what she later describes as a Dark Flight of the Self, she seemed unrecognizable to herself which propelled her into a deep grief for who she had been. Unlike depression she had navigated in the past, insight was elusive and unattainable. Instead, she felt as if she was crawling along, unsure what was right ahead of her. Small things, pho...

Miriam Feldman and her husband Craig were successful artists raising four children in Los Angeles. They were a happy family, with a great confidence in all their children succeeding in whatever they chose. Their son Nick, in particular, was a gifted artist himself, and they looked forward to watching him blossom and grow. But as he reached early adulthood, disturbing symptoms forced them to reckon...

When your child is a journalist working in dangerous locations around the world, worry goes with the territory. But the alert goes down when she is near home. Yett that is when Ingrid Wall's daughter lost her life covering a seemingly benign story. Along with the tremendous grief of facing her death came the horror of how she died and the fact that she became such a big news story herself. How did...

Losing a sibling at any age has a deep impact on how we see ourselves in the world. Aside from parents, siblings carry more of our history than nearly anyone else. So what happens when your sister is diagnosed with a disabling and lethal cancer? When Lila Glasoe Franceses sister Carolyn was diagnosed with Glioblastoma she had no idea what lay ahead of them. All she knew was that she was going to d...

What does it take to prepare ourselves to do the work of anti-racism? At this time when there is an outcry against racism and oppression, many white Americans are confronting the hard truth that we benefit from the system that oppresses others. How do we face that truth, which involves a loss of who we thought we were, and find unique actions we can sustain to bring about change? Kate Schatz has b...

In times when the inequities and oppressions of the world are obvious to all whose eyes are open, how do we keep hope alive, not only for ourselves but for our children? Sean Perry dedicates his life to the mental health needs of kids and has plenty to say about what helps all of us find our way in the midst of challenges. Join us for a conversation about what each of us can contribute to a better...

Alia Volz' mother sold marijuana baked goods in a time when that was illegal. At first, it was a rebellious way to make a living. But then the AIDS epidemic made it so much more; a struggle for the right of patients to use every tool available to feel better. Growing up in the midst of the political battle over marijuana, Alia also learned the history of why it was illegal when alcohol was not, a...

Suzanne Falter's life came to a halt when her 22 year old daughter died. She was no longer able to overwork, give more than she had, and keep up with the constant demands to achieve. Brought to her knees, she discovered that if she listened to what she really needed, even in those most terrible days, she could find her way to a greater sense of peace. Over time the discovery of self care in her li...

There is solace in speaking our grief and yet many of us are unprepared for true listening. How can we honor the voices of grief, the true feelings that come along with the death of someone we love? In Lindsey Whissel Fenton's film Speaking Grief she shares the voices of people living with loss and suggests ways we can become better at supporting and honoring those voices. In the process, we are a...

Novelists are often asked whether the book comes from their own experiences. The answer can be complex. For even when the story is not autobiographical, there is a thread of who we are and what we've experienced running underneath. After writing Godshot, Chelsea Bieker realized that her separation from her mother when she was a child, and the course of their severed relationship, led her to explor...

Bernie Siegel MD, NY Times bestselling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles continues his profound contribution of wisdom and insights to our world with his new book When You Realize How Perfect Everything Is co-authored with his grandson Charlie Siegel. Based on the anonymous quote 'When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.' Bernie and Charlie...

What makes us human? In a culture oriented towards the mind, it is easy to think that how well we can reason and express ourselves hold the keys. But this leads to a rejection of those of us who lose that ability. What about people with Alzheimers, or developmentally disabled people, or people with declining mental powers in old age? It is tempting to think that without mental powers and memory, h...