We are wired for connection. People belong in community. We need each other. I explained my passion for the value of connection between humans in my 2018 TEDx Winnipeg talk, weaving the metaphor of the interconnected sequoia trees with stories of connection in my life. The sequoia tress, one of the tallest trees in the …
When I spoke at TEDx Winnipeg 2018 last year, I finished with a story about Bonnie. We’ve known each other for a lot of years. In the TEDx talk, I started the story by saying, “I can think of no better way to tell you about the beauty of the human forest that to tell …
Dear Car, If things had been different, …the couch I sit at in this moment would have streamers and balloons above it. I suspect your mom would have had you over for the day to occupy you, while your husband decorated and fussed, while your friends came over to put up decorations and loaded food …
Yesterday, during my weekly chat with Hal on 680CJOB, we talked about how real the impact of the death of a pet can be. As you’ll hear on the recording, one of the guys in the news room pooh-poohed the idea that the death of an animal is actually the death of a family member. …
Dear Little Ones, Yesterday, it was exactly a quarter century since I last heard your heart beats. It is exactly 25 years ago today that my world fell in and blew apart; simultaneously imploding and exploding. No heart beats one morning. Later that day, when I held you, you were both impossibly perfect, even in …
Dear folks of Humboldt, As a therapist, I’m a person who has the tender, holy privilege and responsibility of sitting with people in the darkest circumstances of their lives. I want to acknowledge the gift you have been to all of us Canadians–even the world. Your community has let us in on your grief and pain after …
Dear Son, So many thoughts and feelings and words inside me, this morning after the night of your team’s great National Championship loss. So many things deliberately unsaid yesterday…yesterday was a day of silent comfort, sitting in the sadness with you. Words weren’t a good idea yesterday. And today, you are a couple of time …
She would have been sixteen today. I have her birthday marked on our calendar. We mark the occasion every year. Not with a birthday cake though. With white daisies. Janna Hope was only 3 weeks old when the abnormalities of her little heart were too much for her little body to bear. In the years …
Husband and I were part of an article this week in the Globe And Mail: How Soon is Too Soon? Zosia Bielski, a writer from the Globe, contacted me after reading about The Widower’s Club, and Visiting My Husband’s Wife’s Grave on the blog. She wanted to write about finding love after loss of a spouse …
My nephew was married last week to his beautiful bride, the love of his life. The one, above all other, that has captured his heart forever. Warm hearts shone bright through the frigid day. Even the frozen pipes at the reception venue thawed a full 15 minutes before the wedding started! (Though I suspect it …