#MondaysMoments

July 17 2023

As we continue with our theme of “Yield to Your Grief Journey,” I want to talk about the word yield. The etymology of the word yield is Old English: "to pay, pay for; reward, render; worship, serve...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, July 17, 2023

July 10 2023

This month we’re talking about our theme, “Yield to Your Grief Journey.” The grief journey is dark and hard so it might feel counterintuitive to yield to it. But as the expression goes, in order to...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, July 10, 2023

July 3 2023

Before we begin discussing this month’s theme of “Yield to Your Grief Journey,” I want to use this blog post to wish you a meaningful 4th of July holiday. On this holiday we honor freedom. Freedom ...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, July 3, 2023

June 26 2023

 I close this month with a poem that talks about our theme, “Holding onto Changing Love.” For the Living by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer It is the work of the living to grieve the dead. It is ou...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, June 26, 2023

June 19 2023

“Holding onto Changing Love” is our theme for June and that feels appropriate to me for many reasons. Death is one kind of loss, but there are many others. Losses with health, relationships, and li...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, June 19, 2023

June 12 2023

We can hold onto our changing love for our loved ones as we continue our bonds with them. In 1996 a psychiatrist and two Ph.D.’s edited a book titled “Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief,...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, June 12, 2023

June 5 2023

This month our theme is “Holding onto Changing Love.” When we lose a loved one, the love we felt for that person doesn’t end, it changes. I recently found an anonymous quote that speaks to this: “W...
By Jackie Naginey Hook
Monday, June 5, 2023

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...