I can’t say enough about the healing power of a group. The Compassionate Friends chapter meetings that I attend have been a help. (The Compassionate Friends is a nation-wide support for child, grandchild, and sibling loss). It’s good to hear what other people have done in certain situations, and I’ve met friends I can connect with outside of the group.

Early on, I read a book called The Grief Club: The Secret to Getting through All Kinds of Change by Melody Beattie. She lost a son, and has had numerous other losses in her life. It emphasized that you are not alone in what you are going through, even though it might feel isolating. Find those others. There are others. They can offer you the support that no one else can.

A former coworker led me to a smaller group: for moms whose kids died in young adulthood, called Hope for Hurting Moms. It’s always worth the hour drive to let my hair down and be with the smaller group of mamas who get it.

I read another book called Saturday Night Widows: The Adventures of Six Friends Remaking Their Lives. It revealed research that showed that novel and adventurous experiences, which form new neural pathways in the brain, are healing for trauma and grief. This inspired me to start my own little group of bereaved mom friends that I call The Healing Moms. We get out (sometimes a feat in itself) and try new things. Sometimes our new thing is a restaurant we want to check out; this month it’s a hike in Boulder.

The Healing Moms participating in CarlyMarie’s The Mother Hearts “I See You” Project 2016