The Wrong Kind of Dates
April 2, 2020 No Comments26-29th March 2020 About a year ago, I ventured a little toe into the on-line dating waters. Everything about the idea was absurd, unfathomable, unimaginable. Before that, I’d had a couple of months where I bravely, if hesitantly, asked trusted friends, “Do you know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone (etc) who might know […]
Read MoreDon’t Get Me Wrong, But…
April 2, 2020 No CommentsArtwork of Julia & her BFF by Julia, 2019 21 March 2020 First day of Spring. At least in my rolodex of dates. The Vernal Equinox. More light than dark each day in the northern hemisphere. Spring. One of my four favourite seasons. Freshness. Colours. Sounds. Scents. Beauty splashing all around. The Alps in the […]
Read MoreIncompletely Complete
April 2, 2020 2 CommentsPhoto generously donated by Shutterstock 20 March 2020 Today is day four of French lockdown. Today is also four days since I got my two alive kids home from the UK. I’d been saying to them over the past week, “I don’t mind where you are – I think the UK or France will be […]
Read MoreThe Courage Required to Look Grief in the Face
April 2, 2020 No CommentsPhoto by Sarah Treanor (streanor.com) 9th March 2020 I have just come back from a fascinating two-day workshop on Transformative Facilitation. It’s about enabling, engendering, indeed even provoking moments of deep insight and reflection that can lead to fundamental change in how a person sees themselves and the world around them, leading to different, more […]
Read MoreExpertise I Didn’t Want
April 2, 2020 No CommentsPhoto by Tim Marshall on Unsplash 29 February 2020 It is dawning on me that I am an expert in Grief. My own, for sure. But increasingly, that of some others, too. Not in terms of what they are experiencing, and how it feels inside of them, but in terms of being able to help them: Differentiate pain […]
Read MoreThe Weirdness of February
April 2, 2020 No Comments28th February 2020 April is the cruellest month. Because TS Eliot said so. And because Mike died in April. And our wedding anniversary is in April. And his funeral date (the same date as our wedding anniversary). No – September is the cruellest month because I no longer have the back to school routine for […]
Read MorePicking at Grief Scabs
April 2, 2020 No Comments28 February 2020 February is weird. Always slightly off. As a kid, I found it weird that there were only 28 days in the month. Then 29 days just as we were getting used to the 28 day pattern. I wondered in awe at the brilliance of the scientists from so long ago who figured […]
Read MoreTread Lightly on my Memories
April 2, 2020 1 Comment24 February 2020 I live in Small Town France. In a village, actually. It’s a lovely, charming village called Sergy, nestling under the Jura mountain range, and looking across (over Geneva, Switzerland) towards the Mont Blanc. Magical scenery. Four proper seasons, each lasting 3 months. The kind of place where, when it’s Spring, Spring is […]
Read MoreValidation Matters: Five Not Three
April 2, 2020 No Comments16th February 2020 I have had a tough week. First, hearing difficult health news regarding someone I care about deeply. Then being the recipient of highly confrontational/aggressive behaviour from family friends that I cannot even begin to comprehend at this stage. Ending with the words, “do not contact us again”. I need an outlet for […]
Read MoreOne Death or Four?
April 2, 2020 3 CommentsPhoto by Jude Beck on Unsplash 12 February 2020 It’s about 3am and I can’t sleep. I slept from about 11.30pm to 2am and now I am awake. Last night I slept from about 9pm to 3am and then was awake till I got up for my Tuesday morning swim. I try to go back to sleep for […]
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