Latest posts
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East of Eden
When my sister in law Nicole called a couple of months ago, inviting us to share Christmas with them in their new home in Salinas (in Northern California, just outside Monterrey,) I agreed. I wasn’t sure I’d be up for it when it came, but I believe in putting special events and trips on the…
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The Bridge of Anger
Taken in the Crypt of Winchester Cathedral, November 2016 Here are a few things I read about Anger in Grief this week. I found them very helpful indeed. These quotations are pulled from this website. Anger surfaces once you are feeling safe enough to know you will probably survive whatever comes. At first, the fact you…
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Injustice for All
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”—Martin Luther King Jr. Though I have certainly experienced variations of anger over the journey with Vernon, I had no idea how much anger was ready to come out till last week. It was the the last straw of injustice that finally pushed me over the edge. I had…
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Sketches of England
I have been out of commission for the last couple of weeks. Actually that is not entirely true. I’ve chosen not to write for the blog…or check in much online. It was as off the grid as possible for someone like me, just being in another country and therefore with interment wifi. I needed the…
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Pigeon Post and Coffee Roast
I just got off an hour long conversation with someone at Social Security. I need to collect some more information from England before I can apply for any survivor benefit, it seems. So that is still in the air. But it was the first time I pulled Vernon’s death certificate out of its envelope and…
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Craft Fair This Weekend
Just a reminder that our annual craft fair fundraiser will be THIS WEEKEND at the San Clemente Art Supply. Friday 6pm-9pm Saturday 10am —5 pm There will be all sorts of handmade goods, perfect for gift shopping. I hope you can make it! If you can’t make it to the event, the option to order…
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The Shape You Left in Us
The shape you left in us. As I looked around at the group of sixteen, circled in the shadow of giant rocks, a makeshift family of friends who had reconvened to release the ashes, I could almost see the shape of Vernon in our midst. I’d put most of the ashes in a beautiful clay…
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Grief Poems
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”—William Shakespeare, Macbeth It’s been hard to write in this space this week as everything is so politically charged. I have deep convictions when it comes to this sort of thing, but I’m trying to keep this…
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The Message of the Early Days
I think I’m starting to rise out of the fog more often than not. I think the writing group has helped a lot…and we have less than a third of the way left for that. I’m so happy to have found something that suits my nature so well in this time. It’s been so much…
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Glasses
Among Vernon’s boxes of belongings in the garage, I found a ziplock bag full of glasses. There was the pair he bought in Venice for our honeymoon. I remembered how he looked in those dark sunglasses, eating an orange popsicle on an orange chair. He looked like a member of Oasis. I remember that time,…