Grief & loss

Reflections on a Queer Childhood: Growing Up in the Shadow of AIDS
Grief & loss / Identity / Life

Reflections on a Queer Childhood: Growing Up in the Shadow of AIDS

can you order isotretinoin online I, like so many gay men of my generation, discovered who we are, and how our country feels about who we are, while growing up in the shadow of AIDS.

Merry Christmas 2014
Grief & loss

How My Christmas Tree Became My Grief Counselor

You know that holiday advice for the broken-of-heart: create new traditions? It doesn’t really work for newly separated co-parents, like Tracie and me, who are trying to follow a different piece of advice: keep the kids’ lives as normal as possible.

PHOTO CREDIT: CHERYL DUMESNIL
Grief & loss

7 Tips to Surviving the Holidays after Heartbreak

In addition to twice-weekly yoga classes and my fledgling meditation practice, I’ve found these seven simple actions have a surprisingly powerful impact on my mood.

When Marriage Equality Activists Break Up
Grief & loss

When Marriage Equality Activists Break Up

I know that the rights and responsibilities we gained are important not only to couples who stay married, but also those who need to separate.

PHOTO CREDIT: POLLY PAGENHART
Family / Grief & loss

Grief for the holidays

Last Saturday night, dozens of friends, neighbors, and family gathered ‘round our piano for a holiday caroling party.  We’ve held one every year since we moved into our home, but this year, I kept myself busy in the kitchen, and sang not one note.  Every year since we moved into […]

Keeping los muertos alive
Culture / Grief & loss / Kids / Life

Keeping los muertos alive

It’s hard to follow the imagination-filled sugar-fest that is Halloween. Still, before I can sneak all the mini-Snickers’ out of my kids’ trick or treat bags, Día De Los Muertos is upon us.  I don’t want to let this holiday slip by without  some observance, but it’s difficult to celebrate […]

We Are Broken: Today in Boston
Grief & loss / Life

We Are Broken: Today in Boston

It’s a beautiful day in Boston today. The sun is shining. It’s warmer than it’s been in a while. This is the kind of day we’ve been waiting for. But even in the light, it’s a dark day here. Some of us are finding out, slowly, that our friends and […]

Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day?
Family / Grief & loss / Life / Parenting

Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day?

Our daughter goes to a school that’s connected with a Temple, and so it is, both by association and intention, a Jewish school. One of the results being that, in addition to not celebrating the obvious holidays like Christmas, they also don’t celebrate the governmental holidays. Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc. […]

Open Thread: How Are You Approaching Newtown with Your Kids?
Family / Grief & loss / Life / Parenting

Open Thread: How Are You Approaching Newtown with Your Kids?

Today is Monday, and all of our  school-aged children who left school last Friday knowing nothing of the horror in Newtown, CT school (if indeed they did) will re-enter their larger school communities.  Many schools, my kids’ school included, will be prepared to address the topic should children bring it […]