The Shadowy Days
I was home sick the day the Challenger exploded. I was watching videos of my parents’ trip to China when the phone rang. Mrs. Tolle calling to tell Mom to put on the news. Or maybe Mrs. Tolle was...
View ArticleWhy I Love Cheryl Strayed’s Wild
Her death still makes me unable to lie down, - from “Long Dark” by Marguerite Keil Flanders All this past weekend, as I drove to Relay events and traversed a wide swath of...
View ArticleThe Gift of Quiet Legacies
On Saturday, I wrote a eulogy for my grandfather. It involved gifts – a VCR for my family when my parents didn’t (couldn’t?) buy one, stuffed rabbits outside the door of his home in Florida one Easter...
View ArticleBooks on Loss and Grief – My Top Ten
I’ve learned a lot about grief over the past few years – about the way it can bowl you over like a boulder and shimmy up trees of activity only to land on your shoulder in the middle of a … Continue...
View ArticleMemories, Stories, Mom
There would be no new memories of him. The only stories we could tell were the ones we already had. – Jonathan Franzen Yesterday, Dad sat beside me on the puppy-chewed sofa and said, “I wish your...
View ArticleToo Much of a Plan Will Hold You Back – A Writers Write Interview with Brenda...
My friend Brenda Sieglitz is pretty doggone amazing. She works, she writes, she grieves, she marries, she conquers. Today, she honors me with her presence in the Writers Write interview series....
View ArticleWhen Only Words Will Do
A friend’s father died this morning. When P called to give me the news, I began with action – flowers, a donation, arrangements. But so soon, there is none of that to know, none to do . . . then …...
View ArticleI Wrote to Grief
There’s always the question what else or what more. — Eloise Klein Healy Tears came over me as a spring thunderstorm slides over the mountain – the burden of pressure broken into sobs. As I wrote the...
View ArticleA Question of Timing – My #OvercomeRejection Post
This morning, I have the honor of sharing my words on my dear friend Shawn Smucker’s blog as part of his series, #OvercomeRejection. Shawn is one of the kindest, most heart-led writers I know, and I’m...
View ArticleDo You: For Robin Williams
You do you. It’s kind of a catchphrase now, said to indicate a desire for a friend to be herself or to hold that man at arm’s length when we don’t really approve or understand a particular choice....
View ArticleThe Darkness Is Heavy
I told a dear friend the other day that I wasn’t really one of those people who look for signs of the Apocalypse, but the amount of pain and suffering in the world these days makes me think I might …...
View ArticleRemembering Mom at the Book Fair – The Sunday Salon
Mom and I used to go to the Green Valley Book Fair all the time. We’d drive over the mountains toward Harrisonburg, forgetting every time that we probably need to stretch before we arrived. On...
View ArticleOn Turning 40 Without My Mom
A week from today, I will turn 40. I’m not sure how to BE 40, and while I haven’t really known how to be 18, or 27, or 32 either, it seems more important that I’m lost at 40. Not … Continue reading →
View ArticlePuppy Escapes on the Anniversary of Mom’s Death
4 years ago today, my mother died. My dear, beautiful, compassionate, wise mother took her last breath. I still cannot think of her absence without breaking into sobs that hurt my ribs. I suspect...
View ArticleGreat Expectation and Quiet Grief – Moving the Farm
In just over a month, we will be carrying the farm dream about 60 miles north, to our new farmstead. Still God’s Whisper farm – in name and dream – just at a new location on a quieter road with a...
View ArticleHoly and Hard – The Moving Begins
This morning, we had our first near frost, and the Great Pyr puppies were frisky – as if the cold dances in their blood. . . I completely understand. (Meander, however, is tucked under a blanket on...
View ArticleA Life of Moments
For Hilda One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. – Hannah More In front of the farmhouse, the forsythia has...
View ArticleThe Darkness Is Heavy
I told a dear friend the other day that I wasn’t really one of those people who look for signs of the Apocalypse, but the amount of pain and suffering in the world these days makes me think I might...
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Remembering Mom at the Book Fair – The Sunday Salon
Mom and I used to go to the Green Valley Book Fair all the time. We’d drive over the mountains toward Harrisonburg, forgetting every time that we probably need to stretch before we arrived. On...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Turning 40 Without My Mom
A week from today, I will turn 40. I’m not sure how to BE 40, and while I haven’t really known how to be 18, or 27, or 32 either, it seems more important that I’m lost at 40. © 2008 Jo Andre Johansen,...
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