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Thoughts On A Life Upended

2019 Sucked: My Thoughts on Loss, Grief, and Life After

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Found Poetry, Take 2

March 25, 2021 Trenton

The last time I wrote found poetry, it was words plucked from the pages of a birds of prey rescue newsletter. This time I picked up a newspaper and plucked words from a spread in the sports section. salvaged hope,… Read moreFound Poetry, Take 2

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Kindness to Myself

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021 Trenton

It’s so common for us to be our own worst critic. When Sara was alive, she was a great counterweight to my internal critic. Should would always remind me how much I’m taking care of and why she loves me,… Read moreKindness to Myself

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My New Roommate: 14 Months Later

March 21, 2021March 22, 2021 Trenton

It’s been a little over 14 months since I first (and last) wrote explicitly about the permanent roommate who joined me after Sara and George died. The personification of my grief. I wish I could say that we’ve found our… Read moreMy New Roommate: 14 Months Later

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An Unconventional Combination

March 20, 2021 Trenton

Cuddle Punk One of Sara’s favorite perfumes… “An unconventional combination of apricot, pipe tobacco and vanilla,” says the manufacturer. I remember she wore it on our wedding day – I may have actually picked it out, but the memory is… Read moreAn Unconventional Combination

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A Landscape so Vastly Changed

March 20, 2021March 20, 2021 Trenton

Picture if you will a landscape – a small river, land and trees, wild plants and wildlife. Humans are pretty good at turning any landscape into something that supports our existence. Over time, we might build a dam on the… Read moreA Landscape so Vastly Changed

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Identity Lost

March 17, 2021 Trenton

Some people advocate that that it’s our mission to uncover who we are at our core – that there’s some unchanging absolute self buried beneath all the layers of life. I guess I just don’t really see it that way…. Read moreIdentity Lost

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to love it even when

March 12, 2021 Trenton

I am trying to love life, to love it evenwhen the sunlight each morning is reflectedthrough the shattered pieces of my broken heart,a prism of both pain and love.Each day my body reminds me that I am missing my other… Read moreto love it even when

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The Hardest Thing

March 11, 2021 Trenton

The hardest thing was trying to swallow my fear. I was the steady one, the calm one. I could talk Sara down and help ground her. We never asked the doctor what her chances were, what the statistics were, but… Read moreThe Hardest Thing

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Compromise

March 9, 2021March 10, 2021 Trenton

I came across this article on a news site today: I didn’t read it, but just that blurb made me think. Compromising is one of those things I never really thought much about before. Sara and I never fought (not… Read moreCompromise

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Dreading the Conversational

March 8, 2021 Trenton

I read a book recently, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, an autobiographical book about the author’s time working as a young adult in a Crematory, which led her to find a career in the… Read moreDreading the Conversational

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More Grief Haikus

March 8, 2021 Trenton

A crib in its box,18 months since it arrived –You never came home Warm family cuddle,Snoozing dogs – but we’re missingYou, our hearts broken Your beaming smile,warm like a hug – on a boxFilled with your ashes Shock at a… Read moreMore Grief Haikus

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16 months – missing her touch

March 2, 2021 Trenton

I haven’t written in about a month. Today marks 16 months since Sara’s passing. I kind of feel like marking the time since someone’s death is similar to marking the age of a baby/toddler – at some point you have… Read more16 months – missing her touch

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Of Steps and Stars

February 4, 2021 Trenton

One step in front of the otherwinter crispness in the aira breeze that swirlsalternating between a whisper and a shove With every step I feel your name surfacinglike a chant or an echo bouching in my mindsacred, evoking both smiles… Read moreOf Steps and Stars

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Writing Into the Tears

February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Trenton

Sara kept bullet journals off and on through the time I knew her. This is a method of organization where you take a blank journal with gridlines or dot matrix lines, and create your own planner/list layouts. People (like Sara)… Read moreWriting Into the Tears

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For the love of butt

January 29, 2021January 29, 2021 Trenton

Throughout our courtship and marriage, Sara always made it a point to remind me how much she loved my butt. It was partly a reference to her favorite tv show Bob’s Burgers, where one of the characters is a butt-obsessed… Read moreFor the love of butt

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The Library of You

January 28, 2021 Trenton

Oh, my love – I wish I had asked to to tell me more stories – your youthful indiscretions, times you laughed until you cried,times you cried until you laughed, those seemingly small events that ultimately shaped you into the… Read moreThe Library of You

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No Longer Married?

January 25, 2021 Trenton

I was faced with this question when I started my 2020 tax return. Talk about a sucker punch… It felt like a lie, to check the “Yes” button – in the eyes of the law I’m no longer married. But… Read moreNo Longer Married?

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On the Sudden Revocation of our Luminous Merging

January 24, 2021 Trenton

There was a spark when we first met – the luminous merging of my life To your existence.Both our our lives were inescapably changed – transformed,by love, by curiosity,by connection and hope, by sorrow and fear, and by companionship.My molecules… Read moreOn the Sudden Revocation of our Luminous Merging

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When a meal isn’t just a meal

January 10, 2021 Trenton

I miss having someone to cook for. I’ve been cooking more lately (vs getting take-out/drive-thru), and I’ve made some darn good dishes. Butternut squash soup, a chicken-sausage gnocchi dish, a veggie-filled egg casserole for breakfasts this week, some really simple… Read moreWhen a meal isn’t just a meal

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Tears for the 1st Birthday that should have been

January 3, 2021 Trenton

Today is a day where I let my heart dwell with what should have been:BalloonsPresentsZoom birthday gathering in this strange new world. You wouldn’t have really understood,but I imagine you enjoying your first birthday cake. Books – you would have… Read moreTears for the 1st Birthday that should have been

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