Spring Newsletter: Nourishing Our Grief Journeys

Spring in the Pacific NW is rolling out the green carpet in anticipation of Summer. Fields. Meadows. Weedy roadside patches. Ball parks. Trees in full leaf. Every green named on the color palette is displayed and then some. A robust aliveness as I walk the neighborhood with Joey the Pug.

As I mentioned in my last post, Spring seemed to arrive early this year; our Winter was mild. Camellia were in full bloom in February. Then in quick succession it was Magnolia, Cherry, Dogwood, Lilac, Rhododendron and now Hydrangea are coming on strong. Old fashioned Roses are fragrancing the air. It is easy to forget that Spring’s grandeur would not be possible without Decay and Death (yes, I went there). Each daily shift in landscape is a reflection of a blossom or leaf falling back into soil to make way for future harvest. For growth. Sure, some seasons it is more pronounced, but the cycle of Birth, Death, Rebirth is continual.

Winter Newsletter: What Are You Carrying?

The Winter Solstice is newly passed in these northern climes and dawn arrives earlier in minute increments. Those who relish even one, two, three minutes of expanding light in these wakening days in the midst of Winter are exhaling a sigh of relief and scrawl the word “hope” on moist interior windows. As a relisher of the long, dark nights of Winter, I continue to sigh into the dark and appreciate the howl of the wind and rain as it beats against my windows while I sleep. That wind and rain drifting into my dreams…Salmon swimming in puddles going to…where? My dream did not say. Salmon, a powerful totem to the indigenous people of the Land where I live and to people of my Celtic ancestry. Water…a place for both inner solace and movement for my own transformations. A snippet of a dream that lingers days after waking. And I am comfortable with not needing to “know” what it means. Simply paying attention.

Anne Richardson

April 2, 2023

Ambiguous Loss, Belonging, Community, Connection, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Grief Journey, Kindness, My Mentor Grief, Poetry, professional presentation, Seasons, Sojourn, spiriutal companionship, unanticipated loss, Resilience

Everything is Connected: Resiliency, Ambiguous Loss, and Mud

Anne Richardson

April 2, 2023

Ambiguous Loss, Belonging, Community, Connection, Gratitude, Grief, Grief and Loss, Grief Journey, Kindness, My Mentor Grief, Poetry, professional presentation, Seasons, Sojourn, spiriutal companionship, unanticipated loss, Resilience

Spring arrived in the Pacific NW on the appointed day and week in fine fashion with a few 60º days, rapturous robin songs, crocuses popping out of the ground…and then snow? Not a lot. It soon melted, but it startled. Rain predictably returned. But the mornings have hovered just above freezing, the chill of winter not quite ready to take leave. Spring, like me these days, seems to be struggling to settle into a rhythm. Or maybe the struggle is actually the rhythm with a bit of improv thrown in and if I listen closely enough I can hear the undertones.

Everything is Connected: Resiliency, Ambiguous Loss, and Mud

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