I’m on the road today, traveling to be with friends whose son died unexpectedly this week. I left Doright Manor yesterday and should arrive at my destination in Oklahoma early this afternoon.

There was no time for stopping except for necessary stuff (gas, potty breaks, food) yesterday, but at one of those necessary stops I was delayed leaving by a mother hen and her chicks.

One little chick was under my car, while others were scurrying across the parking lot, but mama gathered all of her babies together and headed for safety. Because that’s what mamas do.

Peace, people.

“Here’s what I most want you to know: this really is as bad as you think.

No matter what anyone else says, this sucks. What has happened cannot be made right. What is lost cannot be restored. There is no beauty here inside this central fact.

Acknowledgement is everything.

You’re in pain. It can’t be made better.

The reality of grief is far different from what others see from the outside. There is pain in this world that you can’t be cheered out of.

You don’t need solutions. You don’t need to move on from your grief. You need someone to see your grief. To acknowledge it. You need someone to hold your hands while you stand there in blinking horror, staring in the hole that was your life.

Something cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.” – Megan Divine