Holding the weight of more than one grief

My brother died a year ago today. I am sad for many reasons. I really don't have much else to say. I guess that's the nature of being sad. It makes you quiet. The "if onlys" and "should haves" and "I wish-es" hang heavy like a weighted blanket, but I push them back and resolve...

Mother’s Day for the broken

I became a mother in 1995 after 23 exhausting hours of labor that resulted in a caesarean section. Our firstborn entered the world as traumatically as he left it just 16 astoundingly short years later. Matthew was born 6 days shy of our two year wedding anniversary. I had been told I would never be...

When joy doesn’t come in the morning

Really? Is this true, I ask? Because I can certainly tell you that joy didn’t come the morning after my child died. Or the morning after my mother was hit and killed by a car. Or the morning after my brother died, or the one after my friend took her last breath. Neither did it...

Grief and Anticipatory Days

I was fine until yesterday. For inexplicable reasons, the grief horizon turned dark in the early morning hours of yesterday. It's been said there is no rhyme or reason for these heavy-laden moments of grief, but this time, I know the reason. The reason is May. May is approaching. May is when his birthday is....

Joy for your weekend

If you don't get these weekend posts, you should! #soulfood https://annvoskamp.com/2022/03/only-the-good-stuff-multivitamins-for-your-weekend-3-26-2022/ Two of my favorite links from the post: https://blog.iamsecond.com/lessons-from-a-modern-shepherd?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-iamsecond&utm_content=later-25624379&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio Lessons from a Modern Shepherd Press 3 for a pep talk from kindergartners. A new hotline gives you options for joy: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/06/1084800784/peptoc-hotline-kindergarteners Blessings, Angie

Doubting God, Small Faith, and Big Fears

Matthew 14:31 "Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” I've read this verse dozens of times over the past 30 years, but not until this morning did I make the connection that small faith and doubt is what can...