Patience & Fortitude

Death and Social Media

I often question the value of this blog. After all, while grief is a permanent state its intensity varies over time and circumstances. I’m not sure, either, what I have to offer is very much by way of comfort. I don’t coat grief with a film of sentiment,...

Grief is not a Thief

I don’t think it is true that grief “steals our happiness.” Grief is not a thief; if we want to get all literary we could say that “Death is a thief” but grief? No, grief steals nothing from us. It simply settles over our bones like a...

An Atheist non-perspective on Religion

This post is not about grief, but it is something that has been on my mind for a while now. I want to talk about my perspective in writing this blog, and where it comes from, and why it’s different from most skeptic’s blogs out there, and how (maybe) that...

After Death, Practice an Act of Love

“So why do we prepare ourselves for birth and death so differently? Largely because birth is good news and death is not.” This line captivated me. It’s in Planning a Funeral? Why Information Is Power at HuffPost. And it’s true, of course…but it hasn’t always been this...

Bringing in an empty year

I am hitting the 20 year mark for my mother’s death. In the spring of 1993, she was diagnosed with fatal colon-rectal cancer. She had already been in pain and bleeding for nearly a year. She did not go seek medical help earlier because she believed we...

Doctors and Grief

At Florida State University, there was a project that went on for a few years but seems to have dropped off called HEAL: Humanism Evolving through Arts and Literature. It was headed by a doctor out of the medical college. It’s mission statement is pretty...