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If My Grief Were a Goldfish

Driftwood on Folly Beach, SC

If my grief were a goldfish, it would be a miracle it had made it this long. Like us, it would be amazed it was still breathing, still surviving, in that tiny plastic bowl, after you’d won it for me at the Fair. It would watch the moon fill up and then disappear into a […]

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Why I Quit Facebook & Instagram

olive tree in monachil, spain

A concern has been brewing in me the past few years. It has to do with how much time I spend looking at a screen. How much time we all spend looking at screens. I’ve talked to countless friends about it, lamenting about what we can do, how we can fix it, whether things will […]

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12 Countries, 12 Months

I told Tyler to go first. He scanned the 20+ scraps of paper on the floor. Each, in bold Sharpie, held the name of a country and a timeframe. He grabbed “Japan (March–May; September–November)” and placed it directly in front of us. Next, I picked up “Bali (April, May, June, September)” and put it below […]

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The Unexpected Emotion That Follows Grief

lago de atitlan grief

I’ve now lived my life for three years longer than him. That’s 1,095 more days of banalities: spilled coffee, loads of laundry, trips to the grocery store. And 1,095 more days of what makes life worth living: side splitting laughter, whispered I love yous, last calls at new bars in new cities. Over these years […]

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Goodbye to a Man Who Devoured the World

Anthony Bourdain

I’ve never been one to mourn celebrities. Though I always feel sorrow for the deceased’s friends and family, for those who actually loved and breathed them, I never understood how people could be upset by the loss of someone they’d never met.  And then Anthony Bourdain died.   He had long been my dream travel […]

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Same Country, Different Planet

ColumbiaSC

On New Year’s Eve, I moved to another planet. One where people are bizarrely nice. Where stores are closed on Sundays. Where the accents make me blush. Where directions include “just look for the giant Jesus statue.” Where, in the grocery store, they walk you to whatever you’re looking for — instead of flinging a […]

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Tomorrow’s Reason

Two years gone… and I’m not sure what to say. That I still think of you every day; that I finally feel OK? Because both are true. When you died, everyone told me different things: time would heal, time wouldn’t heal, it would get easier, it would never go away. They’re all true, too. Grief […]

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