If you have come here tonight on Rosh Hashanah and feel that there is nothing to examine, no wound in your life to heal, no relationship to repair—then I hope you will listen especially closely to the shofar.

Death is a regular part of my job, which makes small talk weird for me at parties.

Miles away in a different life...

My vet said, “She's telling you thank you for letting her go.”

Loss binds us together undeniably.

Grief is welcome, a sacred part of the mourning.

There was an audible gasp when they heard he* was gone A whoosh of air that sounded exactly like the bottom falling out of his mother’s** world the winds of mortality brushing his father’s** face the last breath of a kind soul All the years of struggle have settled into silence: Unsought,...

Acknowledging that our dream was not happening didn't end the grief, but it did offer closure.

The words we cast to fill the silence left by one we loved never are enough.

Memorial Day is not to be celebrated. It is to be observed, scrutinized, and witnessed on behalf of the true witnesses of our human failure to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Impermanence, mortality, ashes, dust: this is the truth of being human.

We gather because we need community to do all of this holy work.

When we feel overwhelmed, we gather to find a path, to find new ways forward.

Before I birthed my baby, he was a possibility, a kick against my insides. With that first cry, first breath, he became a person in the world.

The crisis was an opportunity to learn to be fully me and love it, inner turmoil and all. I learned that strength comes from authenticity, never from perfection.

Sometimes grief sends notice ahead of time; sometimes, it shows up as an unwelcome, uninvited guest.

Knit six purl six sets of two rows four rows six rows up to twelve, patterns, repeating, steady, soothingly same. This is not what life is like. Life is like picking up a tousled hunk of yarn pulled out of the basket by an impatient child looking for a string too many times. You find an end. You...

"Grief no more needs a solution than love needs a solution. We cannot 'triumph' over death, or loss, or grief. They are immovable elements of being alive. If we continue to come at them as though they are problems to be solved, we'll never get solace or comfort in our deepest pain."...

[S]piritual and meditative practices are not meant to erase pain. That's a symptom of our pain-avoidant culture, and not an accurate portrayal of the practices themselves. It's a misuse of so many beautiful teachings to force them into roles they were never meant to play....

In my small-town congregation, our beloved dead seem to linger with us for a little while.