posttraumatic growth

Prying open the hurt box

By Ken / June 26, 2018 / Comments Off on Prying open the hurt box

It’s crazy how unintended and even unwanted experiences bring us to new circles of friends. How our lives shift in ways that once seemed unimaginable. I feel such a stirring as this summer unfolds. This comes in the context of helping other men cope with the loss of a child. So many guys—myself partly included—“gut…

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Crossroads and Bookends

By Ken / January 23, 2017 /

Tonight Denise and I will spend the last night in our home of nearly a quarter century. We will undoubtedly raise a toast with firelight dancing from our woodstove one last time. A few tears may come. I expect we will sleep soundly with the solace of having put all of ourselves into this expanded…

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Shrinking in an expanding world

By Ken / January 13, 2016 / Comments Off on Shrinking in an expanding world

Maybe gun control proponents should try harder to understand those fears, and where they come from. Following a life-altering event, many of us are faced with two starkly different choices. We can contract and withdraw into ourselves. Or we can gradually expand, grappling with both the acute pain and a new reality that’s dawning. We…

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Puzzling out your life’s work


By Ken / November 4, 2015 / Comments Off on Puzzling out your life’s work


How are you feeling about your life’s work? Who or what speaks to you? Do you ever feel that the universe is speaking to you, encouraging you to stay on the path you’re on? Or is it telling you to change course, and get on with the true work of your life? Lately I’ve been…

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Introducing “Hope Heals”

By Ken / October 14, 2015 / Comments Off on Introducing “Hope Heals”

I’d like to share an update on my forthcoming narrative nonfiction book, which I’m naming Hope Heals. It is about people who find a new purpose after unspeakable loss–and how they go about it. My goal is to help lift up others going through tough stuff as they find compelling responses to loss and other…

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Heading into darkness to reclaim the light

By Ken / December 22, 2014 /

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus For many people, this last stretch into the holidays is the pits. Those of us who grieve, battle depression, or for anyone whose life seems to be seized by other sources of despair, the early arrival…

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