Lessons in showing up, a truly useful photo printer, and the comfort of cheese & crackers

Plus, on what to do when you don’t know what to do

This newsletter deals with the death of a friend and my thoughts on how to show up for each other in the aftermath of loss. If that’s too heavy for you today, I understand.

Tim and I are on the road; the asphalt spooling ahead and behind us as a patchwork of pine trees undulates beneath the August blue sky. We just passed a sign for Montreal; we’re northward-bound to celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday. We’re out of the rolling hills of New England and into the Adirondacks. Up here, Interstate 87 gives a bird’s-eye view, with cascades of clouds as far as you can see. The world both opens and feels very far away.

Grief found us this week; a friend died unexpectedly. We had seen her and her family a few days prior. The horror and senselessness of her death has washed over us in waves that leave us shattered. What no one tells you about grief is that it accumulates and reverberates. This friend’s death is a unique sadness, but it draws on a well of older, deeper sadness from other lo…