"It’s unnatural for parents to bury their child.”  I’ve heard over and over.  People have said it to me, as if they think it’s comforting. (It’s not.) I’ve heard it said by well-meaning clergy at funerals.  There are  bereaved parents who say this, for whom it is comforting. If it comes from them , that’s the exception. In the same way you (the outsider, not the parent) should not impose your theology on a bereaved parent’s experience, so too this is one thing you should

I wrote this piece in 2023, during a writing seminar on Writing Through Loss and Trauma with David Kessler and Andrea Cagan. The prompt was, "Imagine a conversation with your grief." Today, the 6th anniversary of Ronen's death on the Gregorian calendar, and as an introduction with more of my writing to come in the next weeks and months, feels like the right time to share it. I still feel his presence dancing in the shadows.

Grappling with the Akeidah - the Binding of Isaac - on Ronen's 6th yahrzeit, just before Rosh Ha-Shanah

Ronen, Your 6th yahrzeit approaches on erev Rosh Ha-Shanah, and the season when I feel you here closest to my heart ends on September 29th, in just 10 days. As with every year, I grapple with the challenges of High Holy Day liturgy and theology. More on that, maybe, in the next few days.

Hard to believe that 4-year-old N is older than her siblings D & J were when Ronen died. It has been fascinating at best (heartbreaking...

Reflections on what would have been Ronen's sixth birthday.

I've been realizing for a while that acts of creation help me grieve. The summer after Ronen died (which also was the first summer of...

Aaron was silent. Today, so am I.