Best Book on Grief

This is easy to read and has tons of practical advice.

Websites

modernwidowsclub.org

What I love about Modern Widows Club is that they are all about empowerment and resilience.

elevenlabs.io

For a very low cost, you can upload audio files of a person’s voice, and within seconds AI will have analyzed their speech patterns. Then you can enter text and the AI will read the text in the person’s voice. It is incredibly accurate, and an amazing use of AI technology. Maybe Stephen will have a posthumous career as a narrator of audiobooks!

meghanlynn.com

I really like Meghan’s blog posts about adjusting to life without her husband. She has the additional perspective of being a mother, so her content would be very helpful to widows with young ones.

Art

I made a playlist on Spotify called Good Grief. It’s a collection of songs that were meaningful in our marriage, with uplifting, encouraging lyrics.

Listen here.

As a musician, I not only listen to music, I create it! As hard as it was to mentally focus, I kept going to orchestra rehearsal. On May 4, I was the featured soloist for Jurassic Park (Stephen’s favorite movie score), and the performance was dedicated to him.

Watch performance here.

I made a series of posters in Canva that have inspirational quotes and love notes from Stephen. I framed them and hung them around the house so I can stay positive and feel his presence as I move through each day.

I made a series of photo albums that chronicled our 10 years together. You’re probably thinking, “Who makes actual physical photo albums anymore?” I do! There’s something really nice about having a tangible object you can hold in your lap. I bought albums that include space for captions, so it was like creating a picture book of our life. This brought back so many nice memories of all the hilarious times and epic adventures we shared together.

Rituals

Stephen was a very advanced meditator. I aspire to be as good at it as he was. I start each morning with a guided meditation, while burning incense and a candle.

Stephen was fascinated by Japanese culture. I made a traditional Japanese shrine that contains a collection of meaningful objects and photos. This is where I sit and talk to him.

I keep three different journals.

1. Gratitude journal, where I write down a few things I’m thankful for each day.
2. Letters to Steve, where I write down my thoughts from the day, and share any “profound realizations” with him. (He used that phrase on an almost daily basis.)
3. Memory journal, where I write down any memories I can think of from our 10 years together.