Good Will Come | Sheila Collins

Beginning Anew While Being Aware of the End

by Sheila Collins | Jan 12, 2023 | Art & Life, Book Excerpts, book promotion, Celebrations, Family, Good Will Come, Grieving, Resilience, The Art of Grieving

Here we are in January, the first month of the new year in our solar based calendar. Named after one of the oldest of the Roman gods Janus, the god of temporal transitions, he is venerated for being able to see both past and future. As women in this week’s online...

Art As Medicine – Consider Poetry

by Sheila Collins | Aug 11, 2022 | Art & Life, Book Excerpts, Duality, Family, Good Will Come, Grieving, Improvisation, Past Events, Personal Stories, Resilience, Self-Care, Self-Care for Caregivers, The Art of Grieving

I’m not a poet though I’ve often wished I were one. To say profound things succinctly, to be able to express the musicality of images, to highlight the rhythm and tone of words. And now as I’m learning, to be able to create what J. S. Mill claimed of Wordsworth’s...

A Return to Celebrating Life or Why attend a funeral if you don’t have to?

by Sheila Collins | Aug 4, 2022 | Art & Life, Celebrations, Community, Duality, Family, Gatherings, Good Will Come, Grieving, Personal Stories, Rituals, The Art of Grieving

This August seems to be funeral season for many members of my community. We’ve all been through a long moratorium on in- person funerals, and in-person weddings too for that matter. Respecting the danger of Covid we’d not wanted to wipe out entire families or...

The Art of Grieving and the Art of Loving

by Sheila Collins | Jul 28, 2022 | Art & Life, Duality, Family, Good Will Come, Grieving, Our Children, Personal Stories, Spirtuality, The Art of Grieving

“What’s love got to do with it (grief)?” Tina Turner sang the answer to this question in this song from her 1984 album, “Private Dancer.” “Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” It’s said that grief is the price we pay for love, but my friend Wai Chin Matsuoka...

Where do we go from here?

by Sheila Collins | Feb 2, 2022 | Art & Life, Community, Family, Gatherings, Good Will Come, Grieving, Personal Stories, Resilience, The Art of Grieving, Women, Girls & the Feminine

Even if you don’t live in Pittsburgh, you might know about the bridge over a ravine that collapsed this week. It happened early the morning that President Biden was scheduled to come to Pittsburgh to talk about the importance of his infrastructure bill. Fortunately,...

In Honor of

by Sheila Collins | Jan 20, 2022 | Art & Life, Celebrations, Duality, Family, Good Will Come, Grieving, Health and Wellness, Our Children, Past Events, Personal Stories, Spirtuality, Story-telling, The Art of Grieving

This Saturday, January 22nd will be the first anniversary of my sister Pat’s birth since her death last fall at 78 in a memory care facility. As part of my own Art of Grieving practices I try to remember and honor a deceased loved one in some special way on their...