It is with a grieved heart; I write to the Wholy Ground Community.

Our community has been hit with a great host of people who may have impacted our lives. We have shared in joys with their music, philanthropy, movies, groundbreaking and innovative inventions, sports, politics, and simply their existence.

I speak in transparency. Some deaths were hard to mourn because of actions of their past or the life they lived. It was difficult to mourn or show any sympathy. Some of these well-known individuals gave us hope and taught us a better way of life. Some of them did not allow these mistakes to rid them of guilt and take away from their various talents. They conquered their fears and thrived.

We mourn their presence and what they gave effortlessly to us. We honor all their humanity and begin to appreciate their presence. We remember who they were to us and keep their legacy alive.

One of the hardest stages of grief and loss is to create new memories without that person or activity. It is seeming we just learn how to move on. Some days it seems the grief is fresh. A shared grief comes when it is one of our close loved ones.

Please understand there is not a how to on grief. We each grieve differently and at different paces. I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. This is the time to be vocal about what we need for healing as we forge ahead. There deaths may be untimely to us but divinely timed for them. Life teaches us to love what we have because there will be a day, we live with only a memory.

Please share stories or quotes of someone we have lost rather they are well known or a close loved one.

Let us encourage each other during this time. I affirm that the Creator and sustainer of our lives will comfort us and strengthen us day by day.

Be Well,

Chaplain J