2024: Small Joys & Practical Magic

Plus, my thoughts on grief, a medical emergency, and how it changed my perspective

So many joyful moments this year: The northern lights! The dahlias! My son’s photographs! My garden!

I've reached an age where I'm always grateful for another year of life, even the hard years, even the sick years, even the years that feel like a slog. But even as I embrace this gratitude, I've also come to understand the complex ways in which it intertwines with another constant companion: grief. What no one tells you about grief is that it accumulates as we soldier through the chaos and joy of life. I've found, in the aftermath of the deaths of family and dear friends, that a certain kind of grief remains close to the surface. It bothered me when I first noticed the sort of nagging sense of something being wrong. Over time, however, I started to accept these feelings of grief; I still have such deep sadness when I think of the dead, who I'd love to talk to about politics or how we cooked that one recipe and just laugh about life one more time. While I will never look for silver linin…