Pausing for Self-Care

Hello All,

I wanted to send out a note letting you all know that I won’t be doing my regular first week of the month newsletter article this month. May was a really difficult month for my family, and I’m feeling emotionally drained. We had two significant losses in the month of May, and because I write from my lived experience, I’m not at a place where I’m able to tap into my emotions the way I usually do when I write.

We have felt very protective and kept what happened very private, but we are starting to feel like we can begin to share a bit of it outside our close circle. On Friday, May 15, my husband’s mom passed away after a diagnosis given back in March. Knowing it was coming didn’t lessen the impact of the loss. Losing your mom is just a different kind of loss.

We were still feeling the impact of that loss when just over a week later, our beloved dog, Maddy, had a sudden and shocking decline in her health, and we made the excruciating decision to put her down. We don’t have kids—she has always been our baby.

We are heartbroken and grieving, but we are working through it together, like we always do.

I’m starting a new community workshop on Fridays in June, starting this week called The Pause. Leading up to that I will be taking my own pause for some much-needed self-care.

I have already prepared the next chapter of my new series Reflections from This Version of Me and that will be posted in the third week of June. Next up in that series:

Chapter 2 - The Elephant & the Albatross

Recognizing Patterns and Connecting the Dots

Thank you for your patience and understanding as I navigate through my grief. Grief and loss are a part of life, and I’m taking the time I need to honor those I’ve lost by feeling and healing my way through it. This too shall pass, but for now it’s ever-present.

I’m grateful you are here. As always, thank you for reading. 💜

Take care,

Melinda