Recent Articles

My mother loved to bake. Her orange sponge cake was famous in the neighborhood and our church. She was also known for her chocolate and blonde brownies, flaky homemade biscuits, and French chocolate cake. Friends would drop off ingredients and ask my mother to bake for them. If she had wanted, she could have turned her skills into a business.

By Nathalie Himmelrich  |   Submitted On June 09, 2012

One day about a year after my husband's death, I was sitting by a river watching my son play with his cousins. I glanced down and saw a red leaf lying on the stones. Radiant it lay dying against the sharp angles of the stones. I couldn't take my eyes from it. Somehow it spoke to emotions that were buried deep within my soul. Using my compact, digital camera, I took a photo that became the first in a long series of nature photos that helped me deal with my grief.

Grief is hard enough on our own account, but then there is the aspect of another's grief and the support we would like to provide. It's difficult to know how to support someone who may have no idea what support they need. Add to the complexity of this dynamic the facts of our own material; like what is it, really, we want to help for?

It is natural, in non-familial situations, to feel more than an arm's length from being able to support, but wanting to support all the same. It can be confusing and frustrating.

By Sandy R Fox  |   Submitted On May 28, 2012