A lot has happened in the years since my mom’s death: Will and I have gotten married, I’ve become a dog mom to Mudbug, and a mama to a sweet human boy who my mom would have adored. Love and loss continue to co-exist for me on the big days and on the ordinary ones, too.

While grief is the loneliest place I’ve ever been, I’ve found there are ways to soften the loneliness, to make it lie down long enough to let me breathe again. Teaching and creating with my students. Traveling and seeing the world. Walking in nature and reading curled up with Mudbug. Eating really good food, primarily cheese. Writing to find a path forward. And being in community with others. Thank you for being here.

I write essays about my mom’s death, the impact it’s had on me, and the impact it continues to have. I’ve learned so much from loss – that there can be joy and love alongside it (not in a toxic positivity way, but organically and unexpectedly), that grief never really goes away (just shows up differently all the time), and that writing is a primary way for me to connect to myself and others even when things feel the hardest.

If you’ve ever experienced a grief that shook you (or even broke you) or know that just being alive on this planet includes all manner of grief, I invite you to join me as I write my way around and through it all.