#MondaysMoments

August 26 2019

I want to follow-up on the final question from Melinda Seley, PLPC, in last week’s post. “How might it be helpful for you to name change as loss and grieve that loss today?” In our culture, we have...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, August 26, 2019

August 19 2019

As we continue to discuss our theme, “Change is Loss,” I want to share a post created by Melinda Seley, PLPC, on http://avenuescounselingcenter.org. I am often asked in the counseling room what it...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, August 19, 2019

August 12 2019

Many of the people I companion are grieving the loss of a loved one – a change readily accepted as a loss in our culture. However, other changes aren’t as readily accepted as a loss, like divorce, ...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, August 12, 2019

August 5 2019

We created the 2019 monthly themes over eight months ago, and at that time I had no idea how appropriate our August theme would be for me. This month’s theme is “Change is Loss.” My family and I ar...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, August 5, 2019

July 29 2019

As we close this month’s discussion of the theme Life Goes On, How Do You?, we acknowledge that we also go on after a loved one dies by remembering them. Today on her birthday, we remember Margie F...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, July 29, 2019

July 22 2019

Life goes on, how do you? James was right. I was grieving, not the loss of a loved one, but the loss of how I used to look and my life before basal cell carcinoma. With the invitation from James th...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, July 22, 2019

July 15 2019

After six weeks of my nose and cheek being hidden, and although the surgeon told me “You’re good to go,” I didn’t feel that way at all. My face was red and swollen and I felt badly about walking ba...
By Jackie Hook
Monday, July 15, 2019

Previous Posts

December 11 2023

I wasn’t always comfortable with the concept of, “Dare! Silence.” I grew up in a house with five kids and two parents, so silence was not something that happened often. When I began to practice a s...

December 4 2023

This month’s theme is “Dare! Silence.” Silence is very important throughout our lives, especially on our grief journeys. Silence can be intimidating, and we often try to fill it when we encounter i...

November 27 2023

To close this month, please read Anne Hillman’s poem, “We Look With Uncertainty” as you notice “something new is being born in” you while making new treasured memories. We look with uncertainty be...

November 20 2023

My favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. In terms of the meanings behind other holidays, I’m all in. But I can do without their hype and commercialization. So as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, ...

November 13 2023

As I was writing this month’s posts about our theme of “Memories Become Treasures,” the song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac started to play. When our youngest child went off to college, this song mad...

November 6 2023

This month’s theme is “Memories Become Treasures.” In a recent grief education and support group I was leading we talked about looking at old photographs of deceased loved ones and how those pictur...

October 30 2023

To close out this month, read these words of poet John O'Donohue: The dead are not distant or absent. They are alongside us. When we lose someone to death, we lose their physical image and presenc...