Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Sherrie Cassel Life isn’t fair; I don’t know why I’ve thought all these years that life should be, that after all I’ve been through, life should be kinder to me, and that somehow, I was entitled to fairness (in lieu of justice, of course). Instead, I developed a hateful persona who hurt a lotContinue reading “Lemonade”

When I first began this blog, I was a hot mess. I spilled my guts, grief in every entrail. Sorry to be so graphic, but those of us who have ever lost someone to whom we were intensely and emotionally tied, know that it hurts more than there are words with which to describe allContinue reading “A Tall Order”

By Sherrie Cassel Five years have passed since my son died; this is to say, it has been five years since I hugged my son, stood on my toes to kiss his forehead, or heard his voice, his laugh, tended to his tears, knew he was just a phone call away. Five years is aContinue reading “Grief as a Vehicle”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel I haven’t written a poem in years. In language is where I thrive. I once fancied myself a poet, and I definitely have had some winners, but by and large, I’m no Amy Clampitt or Mary Oliver, I’ve had some true WTH was I trying to say here moments too. IContinue reading “The Poetry of Dissonance”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel I’m thinking, which is not always a good thing, about facilitating a women’s Bible study on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is called A Woman Overwhelmed. I think we all, mothers and fathers, especially in America, overwhelm ourselves. Sometimes, as we know from losing a child, lifeContinue reading “Grief on the Run”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel 3:45 a.m. seems like a good time to write. For the most part, those who are in PST zones are sound asleep. I used to romanticize about those wonderful folks who work at 7-11 during those hours some of us occasionally find ourselves awake. Do they have great stories? They areContinue reading “Intellectualizing Pain”

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest needWhen the pool of tears beneath my feet floods every newborn seedThere’s a dying voice within me reaching out somewhereToiling in the danger and the morals of despair. Every Grain of Sand, Bob Dylan Oh, that Bob Dylan, to nail so perfectly howContinue reading “When Light Enters Despair”

By Sherrie Cassel You can run and run and run, but you will never outrun grief; it’s like a second layer of skin that never sloughs off. I know because after four and a half years since my son died, I still feel the deep sorrow and it howls begging for my attention as IContinue reading “Making Peace with Tragedy”

By Sherrie Ann Cassel The day has ended, and the night is cradling me like a new mother with her first born. I think about my own first born, my only child, and how I cradled him as I rocked back and forth in my rocking chair, singing softly, “Goodnight my Someone”, from the MusicContinue reading “Mother’s Day and Macadamia Nuts”

On June 25th in 2009 we lost the actress Farrah Fawcett to cancer. The world scarcely had time to begin dealing with her death when Michael Jackson died later on the same day. Farrah’s death was overshadowed by the controversial music king’s death. Death makes you focus on what’s truly important in life. Sometimes —Continue reading “Learning Curve”