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The bells are quiet, the colors turn to green, and the calendar says ordinary time—yet your heart still feels anything but ordinary. We lean into that tension and talk honestly about the everyday weight of grief: the way a scent can stop you in a doorway, how an empty chair can crowd a room, and why the ache itself can be a sign that love is alive and doing its work. With clear, gentle language, we name what so many feel but hesitate to say out loud.

We explore how culture often rushes mourning, leaving people embarrassed by tears or unsure how to show up for each other. We reflect on Anderson Cooper’s evolving voice on loss and what changes when we finally give sorrow time and space. From there, we turn to faith and continuity—how Christians and people of other traditions find hope in the idea that love outlasts a heartbeat, and how that promise can steady us when anniversaries and sudden memories arrive uninvited. Along the way, we ask questions: How much does love weigh? What color is it? We can’t measure it, but we can feel how it binds us to the people we miss.

This conversation offers small, practical ways to make grief part of life without letting it swallow the day. Think simple rituals, quiet prayers, and intentional moments that honor memory while making room for new breath. The goal isn’t to move on, but to move with—allowing sorrow to soften, love to broaden, and hope to return in everyday places like kitchens, pews, and sidewalks under bright blue skies.

If you’re carrying a loss that feels heavy and unspoken, consider this a welcoming chair at a table set for honesty and care.

We reflect on how grief becomes part of daily life, how faith and memory hold us, and why acknowledging sorrow is a sign of love, not weakness. From hard-won wisdom to simple rituals that help us carry on, we make space for healing with honesty and hope.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

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The calendar turns, but grief doesn’t follow dates. We open this new year by laying out seven honest, compassionate resolutions for anyone carrying loss—practices that respect your pace, honor your person, and rebuild daily life without pretending the hurt is gone. From the first minutes, we name a core truth: this is your grief and only you can know what helps.

Together we explore personal ritual as a lifeline—cooking a favorite meal, choosing a song, carving a quiet corner, or adopting visible symbols that speak without explanation. Beyond formal support, we talk about the humble power of community—book clubs, faith gatherings, bowling nights—to remind your nervous system what ordinary life feels like.

For those drawn to faith, we unpack spiritual direction as a gentle companion to therapy. You’ll hear how a director can help you notice where God feels near or far, how your spiritual life has shifted, and which practices might hold you now. We close with whole-self care you can actually keep: regular sleep, simple food, steady movement, and soothing hobbies that regulate the body and give sorrow room to move.

If you’ve been told to “move on,” consider this your permission to move with—at your pace, with your rituals, and with community beside you. If this resonated, follow the show, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so others can find these gentle tools too.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

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Today, my daughter-in-law, Rachel takes us through the intimate, complicated journey of losing her father to COVID and finding unexpected grace in hospice care. Along the way, Rachel names the ache of anticipatory grief, the way traditions become flashpoints, and how a single sentence from a nurse can rearrange your world.

What sets this story apart is the quiet courage in the details. Rachel’s father, a man who prized his intellect, drifts in and out of lucidity while she becomes his advocate and historian, translating his life for overworked staff. When a facility outbreak pushes him past the point of return, the decision to choose comfort over intervention becomes an act of love. A hospice worker asks for stories, hears about a grandmother’s gentle ear tug, and carries that ritual into the room so he doesn’t die as an anonymous patient—but as a father, a son, and a whole person. It’s a small gesture that turns a lonely goodbye into a sacred passage.

We reflect on how grief compounds over time, why losing the person who sees you best reshapes identity, and the practical steps that help families navigate chaos: insist on clear updates, prepare for abrupt transfers, and use simple rituals to anchor meaning when you can’t be at the bedside. If you’ve ever carried a phone under your pillow, saved a plate at the table, or wondered how to say goodbye when you can’t hold a hand, this conversation offers honesty, tools, and tenderness.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

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A nation’s grief can teach a child what silence looks like. With the Kennedy assassination as a first brush with public loss, we unpack how early experiences shape the way we mourn, speak, or go quiet when death enters the room. From the shock of seeing tragedy unfold on television to the private unsteadiness of waking beside a loved one who slipped away in the night, we explore how the manner of death changes the contours of grief without changing its weight.

We talk about what gets lost when families don’t name their sorrow, and what becomes possible when communities choose to gather, listen, and remember. You’ll hear how love persists through the numb hours, how hope survives as a quiet companion, and how simple routines—brushing teeth, checking the mirror, speaking a name aloud—become anchors in days that feel unreal.

If you’ve ever wondered why some losses feel harder to accept, or why certain questions won’t stop circling, this conversation offers language and gentle practices that honor both mystery and memory. The heart of it is simple: grief wants witnesses, and healing grows where love is named. Join us to find steadier footing, a kinder rhythm, and the stubborn jewel of hope you may have thought you lost.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

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Heartbreak doesn’t wait for perfect timing, and neither does grace. We open a gentle, practical pathway through grief by walking with the ten core elements of Ignatian spirituality—wisdom forged in the recovery of a wounded soldier who learned to listen for God in everyday life. This is a clear, story-driven guide to finding presence, freedom, and courage when the season feels heavy.

We start with Ignatius’s origin story to show why this tradition is so practical: it meets real people in real circumstances. From there, we explore how to recognize God at work in ordinary moments, cultivate a call-and-response rhythm in prayer, and use discernment to make sound choices when emotions run high. You’ll hear why the heart leads the journey, how imagination in prayer brings comfort and clarity, and why interior freedom—not clinging to outcomes—opens space for wiser decisions and deeper peace.

We unpack the Daily Examen as a five-minute anchor for reflection, gratitude, and next steps. You’ll learn the meaning of cura personalis—care for the whole person—and how Ignatian practice adapts to your pace, your story, and your limits. Community matters here: spiritual direction, collaboration, and shared mission keep us grounded and supported. Finally, we lean into the call to become contemplatives in action and men and women for others, finding God in family rooms, workplaces, hospitals, and holiday tables, and letting generous service transform sorrow into love.

If this conversation gives you language for your own healing, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope today.

The ten elements help you notice God in daily life, make freer choices, and find a practical path through the holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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A mother’s cry, a father’s silence, and a play that turned private loss into words the world still leans on—we trace the tender line from Hamnet to Hamlet and what it reveals about how we grieve. We open with the film’s intimate portrait of marriage under strain, childbirth risk, and a family reshaped by the death of a son. From a boy’s heartbreaking plea to save his sister to a mother’s raw lament, the story refuses neat answers and invites us to feel the full weight of love.

We then pivot to Shakespeare’s response: not a scene at a bedside, but the slow, deliberate work of writing. Hamlet becomes his container for sorrow, a place to test the edges of mortality, betrayal, conscience, and hope. Hearing the famous soliloquy through the lens of a grieving father changes everything; “To be or not to be” is no longer abstract debate, but a soul trying to stand in the storm. Along the way, we talk about how art can say what we cannot.

Throughout the conversation, we return to a simple truth: grief is personal and cannot be standardized. Your bond with the one you lost is singular; so is your way of mourning.

Please support us by subscribing on Amazon Music or Spotify
We welcome suggestions for future episodes or reach out to us for one on one spiritual direction, individually or as a family as you travel through griefIf you have questions about spiritual direction while grieving, or grief support or grief groups in your community, my contact information is in the show notes.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

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What miracle are we waiting for when the holidays feel heavier than ever? We open the door to that question and follow it through Advent’s candles and into the honest landscape of grief—where tears, memory, and hope share the same table. Guided by Isaiah 55, we explore how God meets thirsty hearts with real nourishment, how love takes on flesh in fragile places, and how the Advent wreath holds darkness and light together without rushing us to feel better.

The promise of scripture becomes more than poetry—it is a horizon for weary souls, a word that will not return empty, rain that soaks the soil of a broken season and brings seed for sowers, bread for eaters, and a path where peace brings us back.

We also reckon with the hard questions: Will we receive the gift of love, not as an idea but as a practice? Can mourning coexist with joy without canceling it? As we wrestle, we keep company with the God who draws near, the people we miss, and the community that holds us while we heal. By the end, you’ll have language for your lament, a gentler way to navigate holidays, and a renewed sense that hope can live alongside sorrow.

• Advent and grief held together as one path
• The question of the awaited miracle in a season of loss
• The Advent wreath as a model of darkness and light
• Traditions and the ache of empty chairs at the table
• Extending compassion to people on the margins
• Isaiah 55 as invitation to thirsty hearts
• God’s word as promise that does not return empty
• Honoring the dead while choosing love in the present

Please support us by subscribing on Amazon Music or Spotify
We welcome suggestions for future episodes or reach out to us for one on one spiritual direction, individually or as a family as you travel through griefIf you have questions about spiritual direction while grieving, or grief support or grief groups in your community, my contact information is in the show notes.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

UPCOMING WORKSHOP ON SOULFUL LISTENING: https://events.scu.edu/markey-center/event/359741-soulful-listening-workshops-on-the-ministry-of

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay

Send us a text

Holiday glitter can sting when the heart is tender, so we slow down and name what’s real: Advent and grief both teach us how to wait. Remember the courage it takes to admit our limits, the grace of beginning with Jesus, and the honest paradox of holding sorrow and joy in the same hands. And a hopeful way forward for anyone who feels out of sync with the season.

We explore the tension between cultural pressure to “make it magical” and the gospel’s invitation to place our grief beside us and wait anyway. Drawing on voices like Fr. David Barnes and Henri Nouwen, we look at how paralysis becomes the doorway to grace, and how Mary and Elizabeth show us that community is a sacred space where we keep the flame alive for one another. Along the way, we highlight simple rituals—lighting the Advent wreath, reading a few lines of scripture, sharing one memory at the table—that ground us when the days are long and the nights feel heavier than usual.

If you’re carrying loss through the holidays, you’re not an outsider to hope—you’re exactly where Advent speaks the loudest. Listen, share with someone who needs a gentle word, and if this conversation helps you exhale, subscribe and leave a review so others can find their way to the light too.

We explore how Advent speaks to grief by inviting honest waiting, not forced cheer. We place sorrow beside hope, lean on community, and remember the light that darkness cannot overcome.

• Advent as a season for honest waiting
• the paradox of joy amid loss
• community as shared space to wait
• Advent wreath as a practice of hope
• the light shines and darkness cannot overcome it

If you have questions about spiritual direction while grieving, or grief support or grief groups in your community, my contact information is in the show notes.

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION WHILE GRIEVING IS AVAILABLE

Art: https://www.etsy.com/shop/vasonaArts?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
and https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/candee-lucas

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2SFH4Z6

Music and sound effects today by: via Pixabay