Debra Phillips, Certified Life Celebrant

24/08/2025

Happy Sunday!
My serenity always includes coffee!

23/08/2025

One year ago today this beautiful couple allowed me the honor of officiating their wedding ceremony - congratulations, G & G 🤍

16/08/2025

So, grief walked up to love,
and asked if it would dance.
Love blamed grief for everything
and rudely answered "no chance."

Grief stood there watching love.
Knowing there was nothing it could do.
It shared in every teardrop
and felt the heartache too.

Love hated grief so fiercely,
and prayed for it to go away.
Grief could never leave though
and it was here to stay.

Every day it asked the same question,
"Love, please dance with me."
Everyday was met with the answer
"Please just leave me be."

Grief and love shared every moment.
Every thought was just the same.
Every day they fought a battle,
Of love along with blame.

Grief finally stopped asking,
and pulled love to its chest.
Together they swayed to memories,
and shared their empty nest.

Grief never let go of love again.
They made better music as one.
After all if there was no love,
then grief wouldn't belong...

Joanne Boyle ~ Heartfelt

10/08/2025

Be gentle with life; it’s fragile you know.
It can shatter in a second.
It can be hard, and it can be easy to try and harden yourself to it.

But be gentle. Tread lightly.

Cracked ice needs soft footsteps to stop it from splintering into tiny, unsalvageable fragments.
Shadows need light to stop them from sinking further into the shade.
And a broken vase needs careful attention to slowly bring it back together.

They don’t need heaviness or darkness or carelessness.

Shattered things need holding together.
And softness,
tenderness,
light...

That’s what life needs when it’s falling apart.

Life is fragile you know.

Be gentle with it.

*****

Because sometimes we get news that turns our whole world upside down. And when that happens, your world needs you to wrap your arms around it, and just hold it for a while ###

Becky Hemsley 2025
Beautiful mosaic artwork by Laura Harris Mosaic Art

09/08/2025

When you are grieving,
every single day is different.

Not just in how it feels,
But in how you exist inside of it.

Some days, you wake
and for a moment, you forget.
There’s a breath,
a blink,
a second of lightness,
before the wave returns.

Other days,
the weight greets you first,
before the sun,
before your thoughts,
before anything else.

And it is heavy.

Grief is not a straight road.
There is no map.
There is no right pace.

It moves like water,
still one moment,
crashing the next.

One day,
you may laugh at a memory
and feel warmth rise like spring.

The next,
a single sound,
a scent,
a place,
might break you all over again.

And that’s okay.

You are not failing.
You are not lost.
You are learning how to carry love
in a world that feels emptier without them.

Healing does not mean forgetting.
Moving forward does not mean moving on.

Grief becomes part of you,
a quiet companion,
a second skin.

It teaches you how to walk with absence.
How to speak with silence.
How to live beside the ache,
without letting it define you.

You are not who you were.
But you are still here.
And you are becoming.

Not better. Not worse.
Just becoming.

Breath by breath.
Step by step.
Moment by moment.

This is your path.
And every step,
even the hardest ones,
are part of the way forward.

~ ‘Grief: Every Day is Different’ by Spirit of a Hippie

✍️ Mary Anne Byrne

~ Art Unknown

08/08/2025

“The best medicine you can bring for sadness is not joy. it is not telling them that they need to move on or get over it or realize how much worse things could be. no. the medicine for a spirit in mourning is tenderness. and warmth. and compassion. and connection. and presence. sit with someone in their grief and let them cry their ugly tears. do not shine and scurry grief away. they must walk through it. this is love. to abandon all that we think we know and be so full of grace that we are invited in to partake in someone else's darkest moments. what an honour it is to simply be a light. the antidote for sadness is love. it is always love.”
- "the antidote" by Ullie Kaye
Poetry
~ Art 'Mending the Broken Heart' by
Claudia Olivos

03/08/2025

13/07/2025

Say their name(s) in the comments ❤️‍🩹

30/06/2025

"Grief reshapes your identity" 🥺

29/06/2025

A beautiful day at Glenwood - honoured to celebrate another legacy and share love 🤍🕊️
Glenwood Funeral Home & Cemetery

15/06/2025

❤️❤️‍🩹❤️

24/05/2025

You Are What You Love

We think we’re made of numbers. Percentages on tests,
pounds on a scale,
“likes” on a photo,
price tags on clothes.

But we’re not.

We are made of love and happiness and the way we laugh.
We’re made of good memories and late
nights and past-curfews.
We have more substance than numbers.

You’re not what you look like.

You’re the music you listen to,
the shows you watch,
the art you make,
the flowers in your hair,
your favorite blanket.

You’re not the pimple on your nose
or the pudge on your stomach.
You’re not your thighs or your teeth.

You’re your favorite band,
you’re the mismatch socks you wear.
You’re what you love,
you’re not what you look like or the body you are in.

Written by Michaela Tripp

Artist: Nerina Canzi