The Further and Fantastic Journey
A DestinyWorks Blog
Resilience in the face of ambiguous loss
It is what it is. Ugh…I can’t stand that phrase. Probably because it sounds too superficial to me. But as glib as it sounds, that expression does capture the shoulder-shrugging reality of the ambiguous losses we’re all facing these days. I’ve been thinking about the...
The ambiguous loss of each other
The other day I took my grandson Jude to my office. He loves going there, because the company that has graciously allowed me to have office space also has a break room for its employees. It’s loaded with all kinds of fun activities like Foosball, bumper pool, ping...
A way forward through our ambiguous loss.
In my last post I reflected on the “losses without conclusion” I and many others are facing in these days of COVID. I was captivated by an interview I heard with social scientist, Dr. Pauline Boss, who has pioneered research on this idea of “ambiguous loss”. Her early...
Maybe we’re all dealing with ambiguous grief.
Last night I developed a fever along with aches and chills. I assumed that COVID had finally caught up with me. I have been sick with a respiratory illness for 5 straight weeks…going through COSTCO level amounts of Kleenex, Advil and Mucinex. And I’ve taken 5 COVID...
Is this all there is? The struggle with disillusionment.
Disillusions all come from within…from the failure of some dear and secret hope. The world makes no promises; we only dream it does; and when we wake, we cry! Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie All over the world, in the next few weeks, many children, likely between the ages...
When the spell is broken.
I was not prepared for my transition. This, even though I saw it coming many months in advance. It didn’t sneak up on me. I certainly thought I was prepared for the change, my retirement from many decades of one type of work. I wasn’t. And neither are many of you as...
A word to those of you who are in pain.
Pain has a disorienting effect on just about everything, doesn’t it? Take, for instance, the misfortune of a chronic illness. You face the double whammy of physical discomfort coupled with the realization that you might not be able to do your job or pursue your career...
Your failure could end up being the best thing that’s happened to you.
I blew it. I failed my congregation at one of the most emotionally charged moments of our nation’s history, the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On September 16, just a few days after that horrific event, the sermon I gave was tone deaf. Instead of offering comfort, I...
Four life crises that will either break you or launch you. It’s your choice.
Sometimes you see it coming. A dark storm on the horizon gathering intensity until it overwhelms you, rearranging life as you know it. Other times it hits you like a sledgehammer out of nowhere, knocking the sense and hope out of you. Life crises come at us in various...
Goodbye, my friend.
I just left the side of my friend who is dying. I doubt that he will last through the day. I have done this so many times…visited someone in hospice, sitting in awkward silence as they breathe the raspy, rattling, uneven breath of one who is near the end. Is this the...
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