grief – Page 2 – Melissa Schlies

When It All Gets Too Much

This week, I hate rainy days. It could be because after coming home from visiting my family, and doing some big house projects with Tony, everything slowed down. Then last Wednesday and Thursday, it rained making the world feel like a very dark place. Bad thoughts always seem to know when to come knocking. Bad thoughts always seem to know when to come knocking. Heavy, painful feelings bubble up when there’s nothing holding them down. And all of us have seasons when we actually don’t want things to let up, because we’re afraid of what will happen when we finally [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-11-15T23:42:40+00:00November 16th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Depression, grief, Health, perseverance, Self Care|Comments Off

The Surprising Way to Keep Living in the Midst of Difficult Change

About twenty-five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” It makes me wonder what he would have thought of 2020. The year in which the only thing besides change that seems constant, is the spread of COVID. We still haven’t seemed to rid ourselves of it, so the changes to our daily lives have been endless. “The only thing that is constant is change.” --Heraclitus In our state alone, the rules of social distancing have been modified numerous times. Just last week, I learned I’ll have to take a COVID test [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-07-29T22:59:30+00:00July 30th, 2020|Categories: Change, Courage, grief, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Self Care|Comments Off

What You Don’t Know About The Change You Want

On a cloudy day back in February, Tony and I drove down a street we’d never been before. We passed our destination, then quickly I pointed out an ally at the end of the block. Tony took a left and found a parking spot, like it had been there waiting for us all along. We got out of the car, then walked back to the main road, and turned the corner. We walked toward the house we were there to see. Coming from the opposite side of the block, our realtor was walking toward us with a smile on her [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-07-26T20:57:47+00:00July 27th, 2020|Categories: Change, Faith, grief, Hope, perseverance, Waiting|Comments Off

When Pandemic Grief Hits You All Over Again

A few weeks ago, my sister texted me reminding me that as a family, that day, we were supposed to all be together, on vacation. Only, a few weeks before that, I had to cancel our reservations because the shelter in place orders for where we were to stay would still be in effect for our trip. Sure, we could stay in our hotel, but there would be no pool, no restaurant, and many of the attractions we were planning to visit would still be closed. You can’t tell four kiddos under five that the pool is closed. You can’t [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-24T19:44:22+00:00June 22nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, grief, Hope, Self Care, Social Distancing, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

Remembering Our Warriors on Memorial Day

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” —G. K. Chesterton Today, in the US, we celebrate all those who have given their lives for our country. Namely, we honor all the men and women in our military who bravely fought to protect us, and never came home. However, this year, our country has fought a war unlike anything our generation has ever known. This year, war has come right up to our doorstep. The enemy, unseen, has inflicted our most vulnerable. It’s infiltrated our most [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-24T21:27:52+00:00May 25th, 2020|Categories: Courage, Freedom, grief|Comments Off

Can We Even Celebrate At a Time Like This?

Last week, I got a text from my dad. When I went to open it, I discovered he had held his phone up to his answering machine and video taped the message his doctor had left that afternoon. Earlier that day, my dad had an MRI, and his doctor had called to give him the results: No further growth. At this time, the tumors in my dad’s brain aren’t showing any growth since his previous MRI. The treatment is working. And as a family, we can all take a deep breath. Soon after listening to his text, I called my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-10T14:58:08+00:00May 11th, 2020|Categories: Fear, gratitude, grief, Hope, perseverance, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Why 2020 Makes Me Want to Swear, & I have a Feeling I’m Not Alone

Growing up in New England, sledding was often an every winter occurrence. One memory I have of sledding included me, my younger sister, and a boy from our neighborhood all pilling in our long, blue sled. We were at the top of a snow covered hill just down the street from home. Suddenly gravity took over and sent us careening downward. When our turn came, the boy sitting in front inched us toward the edge until suddenly gravity took over and sent us careening downward. Quickly, over the boy’s shoulder, I could see we were headed for the one big [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-21T15:36:49+00:00April 20th, 2020|Categories: Fear, grief, Health, Mental Health, perseverance, Social Distancing, Social Distancing Survival Guide|2 Comments

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

In the corner of our living room right now, there is a big stack of boxes. It had begun to form over a month ago, when our plans looked very different. Now, they’re a daily reminder that our lives have been put on hold. Tony and I were supposed to move this season. No, we haven’t found a house (though we came very close to putting an offer on one). But before Covid-19, we’d been actively looking. And as the boxes in our living room can attest, we were already packing. We were READY to move. Only now, everything is [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-01T23:16:50+00:00April 2nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Change, comparison, Conflict, Depression, grief, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health|Comments Off

A Social Distancing Survival Guide for Everyday (Free Download)

They say, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Right now, we’re all feeling the truth of this statement in a way we’ve never experienced before. It's amazing how much of our lives have changed in such a short period of time. Not only has the pandemic caused us to give up the majority of our social interaction for the foreseeable future, but it has also cost us many of the crucial components of our everyday lives. We’ve had to say a lot of goodbyes. Some forever, and some for an unknown amount of time. Some as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-06T16:03:08+00:00March 30th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Anxiety, Change, Courage, Depression, Fear, grief, Habit Making, perseverance, Routines, Social Distancing Survival Guide, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Finding Healing From Creativity

There’s this thing that happens when you make the most of a bad situation for longer than you should: once you leave, all the crappy stuff comes back to you. It doesn’t stay in the past, where you thought you left it. Instead it oozes out of you in the most inconvenient times. It weighs you down, in the very moment you’re ready to move forward. That’s exactly how I felt when I left church ministry. Just when I thought I’d made my escape, all the pain I hadn’t dealt with or even acknowledged, rose to the surface. And, as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-19T18:24:31+00:00March 23rd, 2020|Categories: Creativity, grief, Health, Hope, Identity, Mental Health|Comments Off

When It All Gets Too Much

The Surprising Way to Keep Living in the Midst of Difficult Change

What You Don’t Know About The Change You Want

Remembering Our Warriors on Memorial Day

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

Finding Healing From Creativity

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