14 Comments
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Ernest Pancsofar's avatar

What did I learn about grief this year?

Grief has no timetable for its appearance.

It's not a series of steps of observance

But a process that reminds me of a loss

And the eventual price that it costs

When I deeply loved a person who is gone,

To whom earlier in life I was drawn

Because of her values and inner beauty she possessed

And she lives on in ways that can't be adequately expressed

But felt deeply as I continue on

To live my life . . . It's a new dawn.

Courtney Martin's avatar

So beautiful, thank you Ernest. Your love for your wife inspires.

Shirley Showalter's avatar

What a great list of questions! Our family of nine will be together New Year's Eve. These questions should allow us all, ages 8 to 80, to reflect together on another year. Happiest of holidays to you and yours, Courtney!

Courtney Martin's avatar

Love that. Happy holidays to you and yours Shirley!

Nina Wegener's avatar

Love the pic!! And thanks for the questions. A lot to think about.

Melissa's avatar

What an interesting & challenging list. I often feel like I answer such questions through the most recent two weeks of my life, so I'll try to dig back to earlier parts of the year to mine my reflections.

Curious-- is the hospice question intended to uncover what you're tenderly helping, or what you're feeling will soon be leaving you? Or something else? That word conjures a lot for me, so interested to learn your intention with that particular prompt?

Courtney Martin's avatar

It came from my reading of Hospicing Modernity - an amazing book, which talks about the ways in which we are in a season of hospicing so much societally.

Terry Vatrt's avatar

Thank you Courtney. We discussed some of these suggestions during Christmas dinner. They opened up interesting and meaningful discussions. It contributed significantly to the evening together.

Courtney Martin's avatar

Yay! I love hearing that.

Garrett Bucks's avatar

Thanks to your Momspreading episode I 100% associate the verb "to freaky Friday with somebody" with you now and always will

Jessica Simmons's avatar

Love this question about most fun night of the year - my first thought was a night two (!!) years ago! Oops and interesting. Then I realized that my consistent fun/delight at night are the nights we have nothing to do as a family and my 13 yo and I snuggle on the couch to watch an episode of Survivor and chat. I read somewhere can’t remember source - that happiness is what you do on a typical Tuesday and your question prompted me to reflect that this year those regular weeknights have been the best 😍

Fran Howell's avatar

My favorite is what is on hospice inside of you and what is on hospice outside of you

FR's avatar

Thank you for the reflection questions, which I will consider later.

I wondered whether the visual description of the photo of Stella in the rain was written by AI.

I wondered because her umbrella has faces on it, while she has chosen to cover hers.

This could be coincidence of content, but a person looking would probably notice this and think of it as part of the image, possibly part of Stella's creative intention.

I am glad you are all together to celebrate this holiday.

Courtney Martin's avatar

The caption was written by me, not AI! I've been trying to adhere more faithfully to accessible protocols around images. Describing what is in the picture is one such practice.