My Mom's Death

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In May, May 29th of 2020, my 32 year old nephew was walking to a friend's house and he was murdered. The same week George Floyd was killed. Everything I believed to be true about the world shook in that moment. Four months later, my mom died. She was certainly not healthy, but we didn't expect her to die. And it happened her her decline happened very quickly. In September on September 22nd of 2020, she passed away. It was in the middle of a pandemic. We could only have 25 people at her service. To this day when I hear unhold music, that makes my heart skip a beat because I can't unhear it

Have you ever had a moment or experience, maybe even an entire season of life that was so hard, so filled with struggle and, maybe even, grief, loss and uncertainty, that the very idea of feeling or accessing any kind of big or meaningful or sustained happiness or joy just completely left you? Yeah, we’ve all been there on some level.

But, what if, even in those moments where the big happy, or the big joy just isn’t accessible, there was still a way to dip into fleeting moments of lightness, or what my dear friend and guest today, Cyndie Spiegel, calls microjoys? One that gives you just enough of a glimmer of hope and connection, ease and maybe even laughter, that it keeps you going long enough to begin to emerge back into a state of more sustained spaciousness and possibility?

Cyndie is a beloved storyteller-turned-writer and an igniter of power conversation whose new book, Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay, is a revelation. She first began holding on to what she calls microjoys during a devastating season that saw her mom pass from cancer, her nephew murdered, her brother struggling to recover from a stroke, and her own diagnosis of cancer, all while navigating a global pandemic. That’s what we’re diving into today, both the notion of microjoys, along with myriad ways to access these moments and experiences.

You can find Cyndie at: Website | Dear Grown Ass Women | Instagram

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Ocean Vuong about navigating struggle and making peace with his story.

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