Welcome Summer Solstice: 1st Day of a New Season

Hello there! It's June 20th and we are officially in summer 2024. It's a hot one out there today - many heat warnings across the country to welcome in the season. Below I've included a collection of graphics and images to share, download and post on your social channels. Now, what does summertime mean to you? 😃🌴⛱️

Grief

I know - from having talked to many folks about grief - that this chart may be relatable for some, helpful for a few, and completely useless for others. There is no set path or one clearly defined pattern of sadness, loss, recovery of one's soul, and yet it might help someone to realize there ARE many stages and levels. 💞

Losing One of the Rescued Loves of Our Lives

I've posted a bunch of pictures and comments online this weekend - memories, snapshots, and a tribute to a beloved rescue dog we lost a year ago today. Many of you knew our boy's story, but for anyone who didn't.....a loss is magnified when the journey is tougher.

Finding out your friendship wasn't quite what you thought

That's a hard thing to learn; a jolt to hit a wall, find yourself in a situation where you've been there for someone else, only to discover an empty, cold silence echoing back....but we can't wear ourselves out trying to change people. Good friends are there to enhance our lives, not make them worse, or harder, and unfortunately, some people will never value friendships the way we might. That's a tough thing to learn - it is a raw, bitter kind of sadness which cuts deeply at the heart of a caring and empathetic human - it feels so difficult to accept that the energy and time I poured into a friendship is not reciprocal.

Welcome, June: a new month and 31 fresh opportunities

So many months.....twelve chances for a fresh start; another blank and untouched page in the notebook that is 2024..... but perhaps June IS a slightly more exceptional month. After all, May can be moody and fickle, weather-wise, teasingly offering summer-like days, mixed with ones that feel more like March; while July rolls in with scorchingly hot temperatures. So maybe month six is the perfectly balanced one, a pleasant blend of warmth, longer days, the end of school, blueberry season, and the beginning of summer?