Anne Richardson

March 8, 2024

Community, Connection, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief and Loss, Hope, Kindness, My Mentor Grief, Newsletter, Pandemic, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, unanticipated loss, Winter

Winter Newsletter: Preparing Our Hearts For Grief Anniversaries: COVID Edition

Anne Richardson

March 8, 2024

Community, Connection, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief and Loss, Hope, Kindness, My Mentor Grief, Newsletter, Pandemic, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, unanticipated loss, Winter

As Winter merges into Spring in the Pacific NW, I look at entrances to shops and see faded reminders from four years ago to stand “six-feet apart.” Painted flowers. Foot prints. Circles indicating “6’". Whatever the store thought would be helpful to remind folks to stay separated. Yes, the four year anniversary of the pandemic is close-at-hand. So many shifts in four years!

Perhaps like me your camera roll likes to offer memories, the “before photos,” where we were gathered at sardine-packed events unaware we were likely “at risk.” Then came the “after.” The impromptu masks…scarves wrapped loosely around faces, YouTube videos showing us how to make a mask from old t-shirts, folks digging through piles of material making free masks for healthcare workers, trying to fill a need…weak attempts at protection until we could buy something we thought was better…or at least more comfortable. Hand sanitizer at every doorway and checkout counter. Constant reminders to “wash your hands and not touch your face.” Washing groceries and placing mail in ziplock bags for a day or two (remember that!) And all the closures. The wide berths when walking. The lack of hugs. And ZOOM! Suddenly everything moved to Zoom.

Anne Richardson

January 20, 2022

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, Trauma, Winter, Kindness, Between Times, Time

Lessons from the Pandemic: Between Times, Kindness, & Grief

Anne Richardson

January 20, 2022

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, Trauma, Winter, Kindness, Between Times, Time

Fog shrouds my recent morning walk. Street lights halo both bare trees and evergreens. The moon, on the cusp of fullness, is setting in the west, hidden as day yawns to rising in the east. Despite dense fog, light is waking and crows begin their morning report. Winter chill is still in the air and the empty bench remains empty despite my desire to watch the unfolding longer. It’s not that I have anything pressing on the calendar and the quiet of the holiday lull (Martin Luther King Day) that has settled over the neighborhood almost lulls me into forgetting about COVID and the most recent variant, Omicron. Almost.

Anne Richardson

August 30, 2021

Ambiguous Loss, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Grief and Loss Workshops, Healing, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Poetry, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, Trauma, Workshops

Lessons from the Pandemic: You Cannot Fail at Grief

Anne Richardson

August 30, 2021

Ambiguous Loss, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Grief and Loss Workshops, Healing, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Poetry, Seasons, spiriutal companionship, Trauma, Workshops

They are back! Crickets’ evening chirping filling every crevice of air from twilight to well after moonrise. Softening as night deepens. It soothes me. The heat of summer has waned for now and fans are off. The constant whirl of blades and the clicking on/off of my portable A/C (to which I offer copious gratitude) entered my inner world as invader not kin. The return of the crickets offers a reminder. Reminder that this long, hot, dry season is moving forward toward autumn, my favorite season.

The unfolding of seasonal change. The monthly moon cycle. Visiting the Oregon Coast and watching the daily ebb and flow of the tide. This is the medicine I need—the reminder that time continues to weave a story beyond my own. Nature helps me step outside my story. Shift perspectives. Return to gratitude. I didn’t realize how much I needed that reminder.

Anne Richardson

March 26, 2021

Covid-19, Grief and Loss, Grief and Loss Workshops, Healing, Lament, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Seasons, Winter, Workshops, Hope

Lessons from the Pandemic: What Does Hope Look Like These Days?

Anne Richardson

March 26, 2021

Covid-19, Grief and Loss, Grief and Loss Workshops, Healing, Lament, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Seasons, Winter, Workshops, Hope

In the Pacific NW come February, early March, we get our annual spring preview. Clouds practice social distancing, the Sun teases us with a splash of warmth and we shed at least one sweater layer as light streaks through the blue expanse. Some even brave laying on the grass—arms, feet and legs exposed. Sure, it will be below freezing in a few days, but the reprieve is luscious. The trees know it is temporary and keep bud tips closed except for the cherries. Their vulnerability is our delight. Sure enough, the rain returns with a winter bite. But the first rain after “preview” offers a promise. As I step out my door and inhale, the aroma of daffodil and daphne odora saturates the air. It is a shift from a winter rain, reminding me of when Grief makes that shift from deep, early loss. The pungent scent has traveled in the droplets. Little Hope sacs splashing at my feet.

Anne Richardson

October 28, 2020

Abundance, Belonging, Breathing, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Healing, Life Transitions, Stillness, Pandemic, Pilgrimage, My Mentor Grief, spiriutal companionship, Workshops

Lessons from the Pandemic: Being with Stillness is Expansive

Anne Richardson

October 28, 2020

Abundance, Belonging, Breathing, Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Healing, Life Transitions, Stillness, Pandemic, Pilgrimage, My Mentor Grief, spiriutal companionship, Workshops

I am meeting an old friend this week. It has been over seven months since we last connected. I can’t wait until we embrace. AND I am not going to wear a mask! Are you concerned I’ve lost my bearings eight months into the pandemic living in a country where COVID is on the rise?

The friend? The pool where I went lap swimming four, five days a week until mid-March when public facilities were closed. These places of gathering becoming a risk factor that could be controlled while information about the virus was gathered. The facility now allows 45-minute slots to swim, only two people allowed in our three-lane pool at a time—one empty lane between us. I was able to snag four rendezvous over the next two weeks. I am giddy with excitement.

Anne Richardson

September 2, 2020

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Life Transitions, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Pilgrimage, Thresholds, writing, Honoriing Life Transition, Poetry

Lessons from the Pandemic: Have You Taken Time to Be Still? Invitation to a Workshop: Recognizing & Honoring Life Transitions

Anne Richardson

September 2, 2020

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Life Transitions, My Mentor Grief, Pandemic, Pilgrimage, Thresholds, writing, Honoriing Life Transition, Poetry

Cricket songs offer me a nightly symphony, a sure sign autumn has arrived even as we are set for a hot spell the next week in my Pacific NW neighborhood. Being awash in their chirps grounds me. Brings me back into my body as I sit and breath in and out their consistent thrum, listening for other night noises. It is usually the hum of cars passing by or a drift of conversation from a neighbor, but, occasionally I can hear a tree branch yawing upward toward the moon or flapping wings of a bird out past curfew.

Anne Richardson

July 24, 2020

Intangible Loss, Life Transitions, My Mentor Grief, Racism, Sojourn, spiritual journey, Thresholds, Grief and Loss, Pilgrimage, Gratitude, Grief, tangible loss, Grief Journey, Pandemic

Lessons from the Pandemic: On a Pilgrimage with Grief

Anne Richardson

July 24, 2020

Intangible Loss, Life Transitions, My Mentor Grief, Racism, Sojourn, spiritual journey, Thresholds, Grief and Loss, Pilgrimage, Gratitude, Grief, tangible loss, Grief Journey, Pandemic

I enter the pool like a love letter being slipped into an envelope. The water sealing my body in coolness the first lap. Back and forth in meditative flow for close to an hour. This was my pre-pandemic ritual each weekday morning. On March 16th, I allowed my body to kiss the water a few extra minutes sensing the pool would be closing for a month, maybe two, as rumors of a statewide shelter-in-place order swirled in the news. Last week I noted the four-month mark had passed since my last swim. Four months and counting since my daily rhythm has shifted. I sighed in recognition that water would not be embracing me anytime soon.

Anne Richardson

May 7, 2020

Covid-19, My Mentor Grief, spiritual journey, Belonging, Beauty, Thresholds, awakening, Grief

Lesson From My Mentor, Grief: Sitting With Discomfort While Embracing Beauty

Anne Richardson

May 7, 2020

Covid-19, My Mentor Grief, spiritual journey, Belonging, Beauty, Thresholds, awakening, Grief

Tulips began erupting from their sleek oval bulbs in April. Long stems hugged by thick winged leaves, one flower per stem. Colors the pastel pink of tongues, the vibrant red of heartbeats, the cream of moonbeams, the yellow of lemon drops held in cupped hands. Tulips surpassing their daffodil bulbed relations with a flourish by month’s end. One completing their laborious cycle, having awakened in late winter with tips barely gracing the earth to now drooping in browned petaled demise, waiting to fall back into dormancy. The other, as their cycle nears completion, throws open their petals with wild abandon, tossing them to the ground one-by-one leaving the stem bewildered, naked for all to see. Daffodils, my heart flower, resonates with the steadfastness that is the root of me. And yet, in slowing my pace during this pandemic time, the allure of tulips is calling to the wild in me. A wild that keeps bobbing to the surface with greater frequency with each passing year.

Anne Richardson

April 17, 2020

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief

Lessons From My Mentor, Grief: Crossing Thresholds, Honoring the Pause

Anne Richardson

April 17, 2020

Covid-19, Gratitude, Grief

I rise these days with the sun. The alarm has been set aside. I walk instead of swim. I’ve become reacquainted with my neighborhood. The pulse of spring rife with birdsong flows around me like the water of the pool used to. Daffodils are leaving the main stage and tulips have made their entrance. Two weeks ago, an apple tree with furled cocoon-like leaves and tight, cream colored buds is now a riotous white and green harbinger of late summer delight. Last week I walked to the highest point in our neighborhood to see the pink moon grazing tree tops. No sense of hurry—the moon or I.

Anne Richardson

March 20, 2020

Grief, Mother Ocean, Covid-19

Lessons from Sea Stars: Loss, Resilience, Hope, and Love (Plus a Free Offering)

Anne Richardson

March 20, 2020

Grief, Mother Ocean, Covid-19

Ah, this post. It feels like it has gone through twenty iterations. It started at the coast. Now I am home and still wandering through my words, culling, rephrasing, discerning. I want to share that Mother Ocean offered heart after heart on my journey to Cannon Beach, Oregon. She is sending you love. It was as if she said, “Daughter, that needs to be the core message.” And so, perhaps previous drafts were for me and not you. To navigate my own response to Covid-19 before returning to my center. Balanced. What remains goes out from my heart to yours. As always, take what you need and leave the rest. And if you read (or skip) to the end, I am offering a free service, a gift, my way of being of service during this time.

Lessons from the Pandemic: Between Times, Kindness, & Grief

Lessons from the Pandemic: You Cannot Fail at Grief

Lessons from the Pandemic: What Does Hope Look Like These Days?

Lessons from the Pandemic: Being with Stillness is Expansive

Lessons from the Pandemic: Have You Taken Time to Be Still? Invitation to a Workshop: Recognizing & Honoring Life Transitions

Lessons from the Pandemic: On a Pilgrimage with Grief

Lesson From My Mentor, Grief: Sitting With Discomfort While Embracing Beauty

Lessons From My Mentor, Grief: Crossing Thresholds, Honoring the Pause

Lessons from Sea Stars: Loss, Resilience, Hope, and Love (Plus a Free Offering)

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