Welcome back to Restorative Grief with Mandy Capehart. You are listening to episode 61 titled, “A Vehicle for Grieving with Emily Johnson.” Emily Johnson published her first book, Bird of Paradise, in early 2021. A week after the death of her mother, Emily found a letter from her mother that included an unfinished manuscript. In the eight years that followed, Emily finished her mother’s manuscript, allowing her story to intermingle and bring healing to the surface while she worked through all the complicated heaviness of the grieving process. Her story today is one full of drive, compassion, and a renewed perspective about living with a lifelong illness, a dying parent, and what life can look like on the other side of active grief.
Thank you for listening to episode 61 of Restorative Grief. Emily repeated something crucial multiple times that I want to drive home once again. Grief is completely unique for every single one of us. The way we experience our losses and find movement forward through our grieving process is as individual as our DNA. Getting to know ourselves inside and out – knowing what makes us laugh and cry, what triggers our rage and what softens our frustration is where we begin to learn what type of vehicle we will find useful in the grieving process. I’m sure many of you agree that journaling is a terrible practice while others will swear by it. Writing isn’t always the answer as much as this writer would like to say otherwise. And so as you continue to listen to the podcast, I hope you will be taking notes about your own characteristics and what resonates with you. The whole purpose of this is to help you find re alignment with who you are in your whole self: mind, heart, body, and spirit. Doing so is going to uncover a vehicle that helps you and I can’t wait to hear what you come up with. As always please take a moment to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who might benefit from the concept of finding an appropriate vehicle to move through grief in their life.
And one last thing – remember, the only solution for grief is to do the work of grieving. Thanks for listening. I’ll see you next week.
Links + Resources from this episode:
- Buy Birds of Paradise on Amazon
- Emily on Twitter & Instagram
- Become a Patron of the show!
- Leave a message for Restorative Grief with Mandy Capehart
- Join the Restorative Grief Project
- Purchase my book, Restorative Grief
- Follow & chat with me on Twitter or Instagram @MandyCapehart