The hoodie allowed me to journey with texters to have them discover and achieve a cool calm. I am beyond grateful for being allowed to journey with them.
Read moreA Thank You to Crisis Text Line
The Crisis Text Line Hoodie
200 Hours: A Retrospective Analysis
Kubrick “Sometimes the truth of a thing is not in the think of it but the feel of it.” I feel that my decision to become a crisis counselor with Crisis Text Line gave me as much as give those in crisis. You should consider joining.
Read moreThe Wound Called Grief is Love: Anniversary Edition
Cake Topper May 15, 1983
Anniversary grief is subtle when it starts. You know the date and in your mind there is a smile remembering what happened that day and all that make the 28 years that followed. Then one morning you wake expecting to do the usual calling Donna just because it's what you do to greet the day. Today it's a plaintive cry imploring the gods to ease the pain settled in your bones.
Read moreEpidemic of Loneliness, Despair, & Suicide in The Elderly
I was living, barely, devoid of meaning after Donna died. I was part of the epidemic of loneliness and despair. I didn’t know when I went though that writing exercise there is more behind this than just my grief journey.
Read moreWhy I Volunteer on Crisis Text Line (aka Why I'm Here)
Meaning will not happen because we wish it. It happens with careful tending, watering, and fertilizing. It took me years to find meaning, new or otherwise.
Read moreVolunteering to Find Meaning and Purpose
Not sure when I started to consider volunteering. It was not easy to consider it as an option. Nothing says retired, old, unless, and without meaning and purpose as does “I am volunteering at...” Don’t get my message here wrong. I am not besmirching volunteering. Without people doing it much of the greatness humans offer other humans evaporates. It is more about me being unaccepting of me as I am.
Read moreMy Two Families
Our Wedding Invite
My solo grief work and journey has changed. I can say that I am no longer a solo griever because I have two families. Hot Young Widows Club is my family who absolutely understands my grief. They know me without knowing me. Crisis Text Line is my other family. In some ways similar to my HYWC family. With my Crisis Text Line family I can become more of the person Donna loved into being.
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