Widowing Empty Nests

Number Noodlings and Doodlings

March 19, 2024 No Comments

Photo (*) by Chris Linnett on Unsplash 5 March 2024 For a non-mathematician, I have a canny way with numbers. Or perhaps it’s simply the patterns in the numbers that I like. For I do love patterns of most kinds – especially the people-pattern kind, but that’s another story. My dad has a childhood bestie […]

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Magical Deepening of Mystery and Awareness – aka MDMA

March 19, 2024 No Comments

Main image by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash 16th & 23rd February 2024 Two months ago, in mid-December 2023, I had my second psychedelic-induced non-ordinary experience. I wrote up a bit about the experience here – but always wanted to write more when I’d integrated, sensed into, and reflected upon things further. I’ve found that writing […]

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For the Love of Dog – again (*).

March 19, 2024 1 Comment

Photos my own, taken this week, February 2024 16 February 2024 Confession: I have whole and complete, two-way conversations with myself. Sometimes it’s all in my head. Sometimes I talk out loud. Usually after I have been up a little while but am not yet in full-on work mode. Puttering around in the bathroom or […]

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The Soothing of One’s Kids Being in a “Good Place”

March 19, 2024 1 Comment

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash 12 February 2024 Over the past few days, I have had opportunities to catch up with my alive kids, Ben and Megan. At risk of tempting fate by writing what I am about to write, because it feels so special, I find I don’t want to pass up on […]

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Wintering and Springing – or so I hope

March 19, 2024 No Comments

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash 6th February 2024 We are now into February. There’s barely any snow on the Jura. The hills look like they typically look in April-, or even May-time. It’s sunny, and, standing in the sunshine, it feels warm (though I still scrape ice off my car windscreen on the […]

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Regenerating Julia

March 19, 2024 4 Comments

Main image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash 17th January 2024 That the brain automatically seeks to join dots and make connections with seemingly disparate things is well known. We need coherence, want to make sense of things, form whole Gestalts, not just because the alternative is otherwise just a bunch of data points, but also […]

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With Love From Edward?

March 19, 2024 6 Comments

Main image by Simon Berger on Unsplash. Other photos by Jane del Pozo. 9th January 2024 A couple of nights ago I was working at the end of life hospice. It was my first shift in a few weeks, having not gone in over the holiday period. Yes, the hospice still runs – 24/7/365 – […]

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The Rich Wisdom of Dreams

March 19, 2024 No Comments

Photo by Mark Rimmel on Unsplash 4 January 2023 I tend to be a light sleeper. I always have been, even as a kid. The slightest bit of light, noise, and my own (not even that loud) snoring, wakes me. The upside of light sleep is that I awaken often during the night, and get […]

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New Year’s Noodlings and Ramblings

March 19, 2024 No Comments

Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash 1st January 2024 I am still in a funky space. The “between Christmas/25th Dec and New Year/1st Jan” feels particularly challenging this year. I am still not sure why that is. I have my theories but none leap out at me saying, “hey chica – it’s because of this”. […]

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Michael – gentle, sweet, wise Michael

March 19, 2024 3 Comments

Photo taken by Jane del Pozo. Almost seven years ago to the day – 29 December 2016. You had just over three months to live. Writing posted on the Refuge in Grief website on 25 December 2017, and reposted here on 28 December 2023. It showed up in my Facebook feed. I love-hate how that […]

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