Valerie's Thoughts

When the Sky Comes Down

When the Sky Comes Down

There are days when grief doesn’t arrive as a wave or a memory or even a thought. It comes as weight.  Weight so heavy your thinking is clouded. This is...

When the Sky Comes Down

There are days when grief doesn’t arrive as a wave or a memory or even a thought. It comes as weight.  Weight so heavy your thinking is clouded. This is...

Between Breaths

Between Breaths

Between breaths is where panic can live—but it’s also where relief begins. It’s the pause after the inhale, before the exhale.  Or the moment after letting go, before taking in...

Between Breaths

Between breaths is where panic can live—but it’s also where relief begins. It’s the pause after the inhale, before the exhale.  Or the moment after letting go, before taking in...

What the Body Knows

What the Body Knows

We live in a culture that rewards composure and clarity, yet so much of real life happens in the in-between—before clarity, before resolution. The body lives there comfortably. It doesn’t...

What the Body Knows

We live in a culture that rewards composure and clarity, yet so much of real life happens in the in-between—before clarity, before resolution. The body lives there comfortably. It doesn’t...

Still Driving

Still Driving

There’s something deeply disorienting about holding the wheel with steady hands while your inner world feels anything but steady. You’re here—watching the road, obeying the rules—while something enormous and unresolved...

Still Driving

There’s something deeply disorienting about holding the wheel with steady hands while your inner world feels anything but steady. You’re here—watching the road, obeying the rules—while something enormous and unresolved...

Held By Love

Held By Love

For a long time after the loss of my son, love felt inseparable from pain. If something hurt, it was because it mattered. If I missed him deeply, it was...

Held By Love

For a long time after the loss of my son, love felt inseparable from pain. If something hurt, it was because it mattered. If I missed him deeply, it was...