My phone rang at 5:38 a.m. yesterday morning. You know that pit in your stomach when the phone rings at a time of day when no one should be calling? When you just know… { read more }
Being openly honest with my feelings is hard. It’s hard because I believe it’s human nature to want to appear better, smarter, kinder, and funnier, more healed, more faithful and more gracious than I… { read more }
Dear Grieving Friend, I don’t know you, and yet I feel so connected to you. I may not know the specifics of what you are grieving, but I understand. Maybe you’re mourning the loss… { read more }
Today is a damp, gray and chilly Autumn day. The trees are losing their colorful leaves, the sun is nowhere in sight and I can feel myself losing motivation. And to be honest, I’m also… { read more }
If there’s one thing I’ve learned since launching Extra Grace Required, it’s that I’m not alone. So many of you are also stumbling forward after loss. You experience many of the same emotions I… { read more }
Today I’m going to share something with you that I don’t even like to think about much myself, let alone talk about publicly. I worry maybe I shouldn’t share these very private issues, but… { read more }
Twice a week, Gman and I drive to the middle school to pick Lolo up from an after school activity. I love this time together in the car. It’s like a 4-wheeled confessional where… { read more }
I don’t write about B very much. Not because she isn’t on my heart and mind just as much as the other two kids, but because she’s an adult and I want to be… { read more }
Dear Gman, When your Dad and I found out we were expecting our first and only son, we were ecstatic. Although we would have loved you equally had you been a girl, we were… { read more }
With the realization that life continues, always forward-moving, comes many complex emotions. It’s not that I’m stuck in my grief, but there is part of me that wants to cling to the past. I… { read more }