Healing Hearts: Reflections of love, loss, and light

This time last year, everything felt like it was shifting beneath our feet. Nathan had just lost his job. I remember the quiet heaviness that filled our house. The way everything suddenly felt unsure. He spent that summer doing what so many don’t see—searching, applying, rewriting, praying, and trying to hold steady for all of us. He carried so much on his shoulders. And I tried to carry him. But truthfully? We were both exhausted. When we realized that the right job might mean leaving Pittsburgh, our hearts sank. This place became home. It’s where Zoe has grown up since she was two. Where Grayson and Logan have made their childhood memories. It’s where we’ve spent holidays, birthdays, ordinary days. Where our people are. Where routines and rhythms and favorite parks and school drop-offs live. Leaving felt like loss. We didn’t want to say it out loud, but we both knew: this next chapter probably meant starting over somewhere else. And that hurt. There were so many nights I’d lie ...

I'm so honored to welcome our guest blogger, Angela, to the space today. Angela is sharing her heartfelt perspective on self-care after loss—a topic that often goes unspoken but is so deeply needed. With grace and vulnerability, she reminds us that caring for ourselves in the wake of grief is not only important, but an essential part of healing. Thank you, Angela, for offering your voice and wisdom to this community. The Unapologetic Truth About Self-Care: You Come First in Life.  Ten years ago this October, my world stopped. My daughter, Avianna Elizabeth, died—and in the silence that followed, I realized something society, or my parents never taug ht me: If I wanted to survive, if I wanted to show up for anyone I loved ever again, I had to start showing up for myself first. This wasn't some grand realization I reached sitting cross-legged in a therapy chair. It was a messy, brutal truth that found me in the quiet moments when no one else was around. I had been running on empt...

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but if you’re mentally exhausted from motherhood—you’re not the only one. There’s a kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix. A quiet heaviness that builds when you’ve been holding it all together for too long. Mentally managing the grocery list, the school emails, the sibling arguments, the emotional needs of little hearts, the forgotten permission slip… while still trying to remember who you are underneath it all. Motherhood is beautiful. But if I’m being honest, it can also be mentally and emotionally brutal . I’ve spent years trying to be the glue—keeping everything moving, everyone ca red for, every detail remembered. But somewhere along the way, I realized I’d stopped checking in on myself. I was functioning, yes. But not fully living. The truth is, mental health doesn’t always scream for attention. Sometimes it whispers in the background: “You’re snapping more often lately.” “You feel disconnected from the people you love most.” ...

I’m honored to welcome Kim as our newest guest blogger. Kim is a mental health and grief advocate, a suicide widow, and a gifted writer who bravely shares her journey through loss, healing, and everything in between. Her words speak directly to the heart—offering honest reflections on the weight of grief, the ongoing work of caring for our mental health, and the slow, sacred process of finding hope again. Breaking the Silence: What Support for Mental Health Really Looks Like I didn’t choose this path, but I’ve chosen within it to tell the truth. To invite others to find language for what hurts and what heals. To be a witness to sorrow and to the resilience that can follow. For too long, we’ve lived under the weight of unspoken truths. We’ve whispered about mental health in back rooms. We’ve said “I’m fine” when we were anything but. We smile for a brief moment, hoping no one can notice what we really feel like on the inside. I know this intimately. I am a suicide widow. I am still her...