Creating conversations about loss

Suffering

BY VALERIE STAPLETONAUGUST 27, 2023 6:00 AM People can leave you when you’re not ready. Sometimes they leave with no remnants of connection left behind. When one of my closest friends took his own life, I turned to art to stay sane. On Aug. 25, 2019, I got the call […]

Art helped find a connection after catastrophe

August 27, 2023 in Depression / Grief / Remembrance / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY LAURI PERMANMAY 28, 2023 6:00 AM When my teenage sister died in a car accident, friends and neighbors blessed our family with oodles of food. The large dining room table, used only on holidays, was covered with food, enough to serve all the out-of-town family members who crowded in […]

Dementia brings ‘unofficial loss’ and often leads to grieving alone

June 14, 2023 in Belonging / Grief / Suffering / Transitions by LTLWYS Admin

BY MARIA VINCA AUGUST 28, 2022 6:00 AM I remember once as a child when we had a babysitter, a rare occurrence for our family, and my siblings and I were home with a high school girl named Biffy. We were sitting around the family room playing with the TV […]

Recognizing, accepting the gifts that come from loss

September 19, 2022 in Death and Dying / Grief / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY MARY BOUTSELISJULY 04, 2021 07:00 AM My mother was a sturdy soul. She was of German descent, born and raised in a farming community in Michigan. Her motto was, “If anyone is still working, you don’t sit down.” When she came to visit us later in her life, she […]

Long Journey Presented New Opportunity to Meet Change and Loss

August 25, 2021 in Death and Dying / Grief / Hope / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY REV. DEAN LINDSEYMARCH 28, 2021 07:00 AM I thought I should tell my story. It was so early in the pandemic, and I was in the unenviable position of being the second confirmed case of COVID-19 in Centre County. I’d been in New Orleans for a visit right when […]

‘I was there.’ Reflections from One of Centre County’s First ...

April 26, 2021 in Grief / Hope / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY LEARNING TO LIVE STORYTELLERSFEBRUARY 28, 2021 07:00 AM The stage is empty. Typically, people would be gathering this month to hear a group of local individuals share stories from their lives at “The State of the Story: Learning to Live” event. For the past five years, the month of […]

Storytellers Reflect on Sharing Tales of Love, Loss and Transformation

March 2, 2021 in Belonging / Depression / Grief / Hope / Remembrance / Storytelling / Suffering / Transitions by LTLWYS Admin

BY RABBI DAVID E. OSTRICHJANUARY 24, 2021 07:00 AM There is a line in Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” that presents one of the most frustrating aspects of reality. The governess, Miss Prism, is talking about a three-volume novel she once wrote. Her student, Cecily, is delighted. “How […]

Making Sense of Bad Things Happening to Good People

January 26, 2021 in Grief / Hope / Storytelling / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin

BY CHRISTIAN BRADYNOVEMBER 22, 2020 08:00 AM Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt adapted from the book “Beautiful and Terrible Things: A Christian Struggle with Suffering, Grief, and Hope” by Christian Brady published in September. Visit ChristianBrady.com for more information. Hope is the very substance of the means of our […]

A Christian Struggle with Suffering, Grief and Hope

December 1, 2020 in Grief / Hope / Suffering by LTLWYS Admin