Posts Tagged ‘Johnson and Wales’
GriefSPEAK: Valentine’s wonder for broken hearts – Mari Nardolillo Dias
By: Dr. Mari Nardolillo Dias Pamela’s mother passed this week, and her 50-something year old husband is in hospice care with a fatal disease. He doesn’t have too much longer. One might think that Pam has a broken heart, with one death and an upcoming one. A broken, bleeding heart for Valentine’s Day. Pamela surprised…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: Dirty Laundry (Reprise) – Dr. Mari Dias
By: Dr. Mari Dias Sadie and Andy discussed the pandemic a year ago, each in agreement that at this stage of their lives it was unfair. They weren’t living. They were simply existing. The stay-at-home order was not on their bucket list. They had plans – big travel plans. While waiting for a bright spot…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: Death Ends a Life, Not a Relationship
By: Dr. Mari Dias “The Waiting is the hardest part Every day you see one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Hard Promises, 1981) (Names and locations changed to preserve confidentiality) Sarah was ten years old when…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: Gratitude, by Mari Dias
By: Mari Dias “Tell me can you move? Tell me can you move mountains? Mountains? That’s just how I feel – like the weight of the world in on my shoulders” (Mountains, from the album “Talk to Me”, Dean Petrella and The Complaints) The above lyrics reflected my current feelings. Like many in the helping…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: The Perfect Storm
By: Dr. Mari Dias “I read the news today, oh boy….” ( The Beatles, “A Day in the Life” 1967) “An election incomplete. A divisive country. COVID. New RI regulations. A subjective media. Financial instability. Daylight savings time. Interrupted traditional education. A Halloween with a blue moon. A dysmorphic Thanksgiving.” These are some of the issues…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: Grieving Youth – Mari Nardolillo Dias
By: Mari Nardolillo Dias, contributing writer on grief and grieving Grieving Youth “Age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in a different dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with Stars invisible by day.” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (Photo: Tree of Life, Gustav Klimt) My refrigerator was once covered…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: She’s Come Undone
By: Dr. Mari Dias She’s come undone She didn’t know what she was headed for And when [she] found what she was headed for It was too late. She’s come undone.” (The Guess Who, Undun,1969) It’s September 2020. Monica’s nativity scene remains on display. Her suitcase from a trip in February sits, unpacked. When she…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: The Masks in the Room – by Dr. Mari Dias
by Dr. Mari Dias Excerpts from “Please hear what I’m not saying” (Charles Finn, 1966) “Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the face I wear For I wear a mask, a thousand masks, Masks that I am afraid to take off, and none of them is me… Beneath lies confusion, and fear,…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: Divine Intervention
By: Mari Dias Agnes was a spry, energetic 80 something year old woman, a tiny woman in both weight and stature, who prided herself on golfing 18 holes three times a week. “Without a cart.” She would overemphasize that phrase. I was the water aerobics instructor, whose class entitled “No Excuses, No Regrets” was a…
Read MoreGriefSpeak: What would you do?
By: Mari Dias I’m the type of person who is likely to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Am I always forgiven? No. Does that discourage me? No. There are so many examples of this that I could write the great American novel, but the story below may provide sufficient evidence. I was teaching a…
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