Tag: family

Grief in Eternity

Yet at times, if only for a moment, I feel the shadow over my days is transformed into pure spirit. Such thoughts give me a surprising sense of quiet joy.

Remembering Family History: A Mess, a Murderer, and a Matriarch

Knowing your family’s past fugitives and pretty boys is the kind of localism anyone can aspire toward and practice.

Great Balls of Fire

With a clear sky above us, no one restricting our movements, we learned—sometimes flailingly, like chickens with our heads cut off—how to marvel.

Beyond the Scoreboard

Here, on a little patch of field in a North Texas suburb, I found life being played out in simple but significant ways.

Emerson’s Grief

Wallie is gone; no visible scar remains. Mourning provides no lesson, no answers, no closure. The poet is not decrying grief for its lack of utility.

A Son’s Journey to His Father

Men often reflect on their relationship with their fathers during these coincidences of milestones; a similar thing often happens when a son reaches the age his father was when the son was born.

Lincoln’s Grief  

The healthy sorrow of our most melancholy president

Winter Rabbits

And so the shotgun sits in our home like a quiet benediction. It dreams—as I do—of long walks in the valleys of my youth and whispers of future pastures that are untrod and unspoiled.

The Hidden Sorrow of Mother’s Day

Our mothers and our children will always be part of our lives, in life and death. Surprisingly, grief does not dominate our existence, it informs it.

My Father’s CV

Reading for the shape of a life can be medicinal, especially when we allow that life to diagnose and heal ourselves. And maybe then that understanding can encourage doctors of all kinds–but especially scholars of the humanities–to think differently about their life.