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There are several opportunities in cities all over the world to gather with others who have experienced love and loss.   In addition, several online resources and books are available to help when you are ready to embark on your journey toward hope.

Sometimes we have a hard time articulating what is going on and how we are feeling. The following words of grief can help name our emotion. Once we've named them, we can start working through them and address them.

It's hard to witness someone's grief. We want to jump in and help and make the pain go away.  But it's not possible.  We can’t fix grief, and sometimes that leaves us paralyzed without knowing what to do or what to say.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is just to BE there.

A brief exercise to do in a gathering to honor, say goodbye, and build a ritual around grief and loss together.

To transform, I have to go within..discard who I was before my loss and embrace who I have become.  This new version on ME.

Life after loss is different.  And I am different after loss.

Through this journey of grief, I have to go within in order to emerge once again. 

This is transforMEtion. 

I have to truly look at the ME I was before I can become the new version of ME.

I went to see the King Tut Exhibit at the Los Angeles Science Center.  As we walked in to the exhibit,  I saw a quote on the wall from the Egyptian Book of the Dead in big beautiful gold lettering that said "Speak the name of the dead to make them live again."

Ancient Egyptians believed that we died twice.  Once when our physical body died, and then a second time when our name was spoken for the last time. 

As I stood there staring at the quote, I realized why I needed to write my story. I needed to keep my loved ones alive by memorializing their names in writing.  Writing the memoir had nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. Their stories needed to be heard. 

Living with grief is our new reality, and we need time to get acquainted with this new version of ourselves.  We are now a variation of who we were, an alternation of the fabric of the person we were before our loss occurred.  Going through this transformation, although painful, does provide us the opportunity to learn how to live with grief and grow into a stronger version of ourselves.  

Although it may seem unattainable at first, we can transform our grief into growth one day at a time by focusing on ourselves.

I call it transforMEtion.