Grief Diary #51: Plastered Grief

There was a time when I used to cut my fingers a lot. I traveled to Mongolia for work assignments and cut my finger while chopping vegetables and opening tuna cans. My co-workers helped…

Grief Diary #50: Loving the Shadows

We all come with the capacity to produce shadows. In coaching, we often say that every strength, when overused, becomes a shadow. Or I’d ask a client, how might you be leaning too much…

Grief Diary #49: The Ultimate Grief

Death is the ultimate grief. Or is it? Is it really worse than losing someone who is still alive but refuses to be in your life?

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A few years back, I used to take…

Grief Diary #48: Cramps, Genes, and Love

My father, my brother, and I have all woken up by cramps in the middle of the night. This is the gene of not drinking enough water or retaining minerals, I guess. It’s usually…

Grief Diary #47: Keeping the Mess

We all have a messy corner in our homes. The corner that collects all the mess, the jest, and the rest. For some, it’s the kitchen counter or a stool by the door. For…

Grief Diary #46: Unmelting Snow Mound

In July 2026, a mound of black snow in North York, Ontario, resists heatwaves to maintain the status quo from the big snowstorm of December 2025. Although I used to live in the area,…

Grief Diary #45: Dancing in the Square

As I watched couples dance the Bachata in the Cambridge Square, I wondered, when have I danced carefree like this last? At a friend’s 40th birthday house party, a friend I don’t hang out…

Grief Diary #44: The Achoring Anchor

None of us wants to admit that we had imperfect childhoods, unless it’s absolutely undeniable. But the power of looking imperfection in the eye and charging towards it is the first step of healing….

Grief Diary #43: Olive Branch

I once gave a boy an olive branch with a few olives, not too many that might signify a budding romance, but just enough to hint at an arm’s-length friendship. But what he did…