Holding Grief and Joy Together | Myra Sack

This notion that we have to sort of keep at bay or keep at a distance things that are hard or heavy and that will somehow help us to be whole is fundamentally not true. Hi everyone. Welcome back to "Radio Headspace." Grief is something we will all experience at some point in our lives, and we're never really prepared for it. I experienced this a couple of years ago when my abuelita passed away. So I started looking for some resources to help and stumbled on "Fifty-Seven Fridays" by Myra Sack. It's a book about the loss of her daughter. It was very real and intellectual, and something I think everyone can benefit from. So I brought her on to help us understand how we can deal with grief with more ease. I really hope you enjoy this conversation. Hi, Myra. I'm Rosie. How are you? Hi, Rosie. I'm good. It's so nice to meet you. So I'm very familiar with your work and your book "Fifty-Seven Fridays," and... So many people have these edges that they rub up against when we're talking about grief and loss. And I really feel like the way that you've talked about it is so inspiring and admirable. And I was hoping if we could give the listeners just a little bit of background on you and really what inspired you to write this really incredible book. Thank you. And your voice is legendary, and so it's nice to be able to move with you and now to be face to face. So, my background is that my kitchen table education, for lack of a better word, was that I grew up outside of Philadelphia with school service and sports really as the cornerstone to childhood. And then I started my career in community-based work, always with sport at the center of how to ensure access for people who didn't have it because of their circumstances. And then December 17th, 2019, my daughter, my first daughter, Havi, was diagnosed with a fatal neurodegenerative disease, which meant that we got a death sentence for our, at the time, 15 month old child. And so when she was 15 months old, we learned she'd have 12 to 18 months to live. And the question becomes, what do you do with that? How do we move with that? How do we exist? How do we occupy spaces that used to feel safe and familiar and comfortable and now don't? And that inspired my writing. It inspired my work that is now grounded in how we move with grief and loss, and it inspires how I see the world and communities now. I'm sorry for your loss and- Thank you. I'm sure you hear this all the time from people that have never had your experience. I can't even imagine. I'm curious, and if it's okay, can I ask you a personal question? Ask me anything? How should one have this conversation with somebody that is grieving?...