Grief is a Sneaky Bitch

If humor is the best medicine, then my guest today is going to make you feel so much better!

When you find someone who just gets it, you want to hold on to them forever. That’s how I felt as I laughed and cried my way through today’s conversation with my guest, Leslie Gray Streeter.

Leslie is the absolute queen of pop-culture references and she found a way to weave in more than a dozen as we explored her love and loss of her late husband Scott, the heartbreak of knowing her son will grow up without him, and the lessons life hands you when you become a widow.

Leslie’s memoir, Black Widow - A Sad-Funny Journey THrough Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title hooked me from the front cover. I could not put down this book until I had devoured it all. She speaks so much truth about the thoughts, feelings and experiences of widhowhood that I practically got whiplash from nodding so vigorously as I read.

If you’re a fellow widow, I’m sorry you’re in this club, but I know you’ll find solace in her insights and her humor. If you’re someone who is grieving a different loss, or trying to show up for someone in your life who is grieving, she offers wisdom there too.

About the show

If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!

If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s episode, I explore the creative response to loss and trauma with my dear friend, artist, and former GSB podcast guest Krissy Teegerstrom.

In A Grief Journey Delayed in Season 1, Krissy explored the delayed and disenfranchised grief over the death of her father. Not long after that conversation, Krissy came to recognize the unnamed neglect and emotional abuse by her mother in the wake of her father’s death. In this episode, she speaks openly and vulnerably about coming to grips with the resulting grief and trauma she endured, and the difficult, oftentimes painful, but profoundly healing journey she’s been on ever since. All of that led to her following her intuition to create one of the most exquisite and deeply profound one-of-a-kind experiential art exhibitions, entitled I Was Already Everything

EPISODE RESOURCES

Krissy Teegerstrom is a self-taught artist who lives in Austin. In 2017, she returned to her native state of Texas after living in New York City and the Bay Area.

Drawing inspiration through her intuition, faith in the unseen, and a connection to the natural world, Krissy creates by hand with pencil, paper, paint, thread and fabric, sewing on her 1948 Singer Featherweight sewing machine. She is dedicated to sustainability, utilizing secondhand materials in the majority of her work. Her artwork includes murals, collage, drawings and sculpture. Her design work, under the name Featherweight Studio, focuses primarily on clothing. Clients and collaborators include Eddie Vedder, Phoebe Bridgers, X, Heritage Boot, Tellason Denim and Wrong Marfa.

You can learn about her work at: www.featherweightstudio.com

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO

(04:03) - Krissy’s ideal way of dealing with sadness and loss.

(09:52) - Grief and trauma as a form of revelation of other Krissy's loss

(16:13) - The moment Krissy realized it was the time to heal

(20:22) - Krissy reclaims her artistic side and creativity as instruments for healing and self-awareness.

(28:33) - Important symbolism that Krissy uses in her artwork to convey feelings

(36:16) - Krissy's work as a safe space for us to be vulnerable

STAY CONNECTED

1) SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST on your favorite platform so you don’t miss an episode. If you love the show, I’d love to invite you to leave a rating and write a review.

2) STAY UP TO DATE on the podcast and all the grief support offered by our host, Lisa Keefauver, by signing up for her Not-So-Regular Newsletter at lisakeefauver.com/newsletter.

3) IF YOU’RE FEELING SOCIAL, you can find her on all your favorite social channels too.

@lisakeefauvermsw on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. Check out her tweets @lisakeefauver

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steph Jagger explores one of the most common ways we experience ambiguous loss - when someone we love is in the grips of Alzheimer’s Disease. In our conversation, just like in her exquisitely written memoir, Everything Left to Remember, Steph reveals what she learned when she took her mom, who was diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s, on an adventure into big nature under the big Montana sky. While what she learned on this trip wasn’t what she expected, she gained more than she bargained for including insights on childhood, motherhood, personhood, the lessons of Mother Nature, and what it means to love someone who doesn’t quite remember the person she spent her lifetime becoming.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Steph Jagger is a sought-after mentor and coach whose offerings guide people toward a deeper understanding of themselves and their stories. Her work, including speaking and facilitating, lies at the intersection of loss, the nature of deep remembrance, and the personal journey of re-creation. Steph grew up in Vancouver, Canada and now lives and works on Bainbridge Island, WA. Everything Left to Remember is Steph’s second book. Her first, Unbound, was published in 2017.

Pick up a copy of Everything Left to Remember at your favorite local bookstore or online here

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO

(30:00) Steph explores what she had hoped to discover on this trip through big nature with her mother versus the gifts she received along the way.

(47:00) As we wrapped up our conversation, Steph and I explored what it means to practice being with our emotions in grief and the suffering we experience when we resist or hang on too tightly.

STAY CONNECTED

1) SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST on your favorite platform so you don’t miss an episode. If you love the show, I’d love to invite you to leave a rating and write a review.

2) INVITE ME TO YOUR INBOX to get behind-the-scenes on the podcast and all the grief support offered by our host, Lisa Keefauver, by signing up for her Not-So-Regular Newsletter at lisakeefauver.com/newsletter.

3) IF YOU’RE FEELING SOCIAL, you can find her on all your favorite social channels too.

@lisakeefauvermsw on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn,YouTube and TikTok. Check out her tweets @lisakeefauver

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, my guest Aly Bird shares the journey she’s been on since the untimely death of her young husband, the secondary and ambiguous losses she continues to uncover, and the inspiration to help create a culture of positive grief support which resulted in her beautiful book, Grief Ally. I can’t wait for you to meet her!

EPISODE RESOURCES

Since her husband’s untimely death, my guest Aly Bird has poured her heart into helping those who feel helpless during an unexpected crisis. Her extensive study of grief psychology and culture, combined with her own devastating first-hand knowledge, led her to create a roadmap for those committed to supporting the bereaved. A registered psychotherapist (qualifying), coach, and speaker, Aly offers a clear path to those who have the courage to take on the vital role of being a grief ally.

Pick up a copy of Everything Left to Remember at your favorite local bookstore or online here

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO

(25:00) Aly shares how fortunate she was to receive tremendous support from her community. She was surprised to discover this wasn’t the case for most people and dismayed there wasn’t much out there on how to be a strong grief supporter, which is how her book Grief Ally was born.

(45:00) Aly and I explore this place we get to in our grief where we move from surviving to asking ourselves what does thriving look like. We also explore some of the key components of what it means to be a good grief ally, including not putting early pressure on the griever to be strong and in thriving mode.

STAY CONNECTED

1) SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST on your favorite platform so you don’t miss an episode. If you love the show, I’d love to invite you to leave a rating and write a review.

2) INVITE ME TO YOUR INBOX to get behind-the-scenes on the podcast and all the grief support offered by our host, Lisa Keefauver, by signing up for her Not-So-Regular Newsletter at lisakeefauver.com/newsletter.

3) IF YOU’RE FEELING SOCIAL, you can find her on all your favorite social channels too.

@lisakeefauvermsw on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn,YouTube and TikTok. Check out her tweets @lisakeefauver

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, I was joined in conversation by the lovely Lindsay Joy Taylor, the owner of The Joyful Jewelry Box, jewelry and keepsakes to honor and remember your loved ones. Lindsay’s grief story begins early on, her mother was murdered when she was only one and even if she doesn’t have explicit memories of her, the grief and trauma it left on her family made an impression on her throughout her life. Like me, Lindsay is now an advocate for thinking about grief from a different angle than we were taught. She believes it is absolutely possible to feel joy and hold space for your mourning at the same time. In fact, that is one of the messages she hopes to put out in the world through her jewelry line and the grief work she does. Can’t wait for you to meet her!

Episode Resources

If you wanna know more about Lindsay’s work, follow her on The Joyful Jewelry Box Instagram. Also, check out Lindsey’s beautiful products on The Joyful Jewelry Box website.

Jump straight into:

03:22 - Lindsay’s first memory of grief - “I'm a motherless daughter, but more specifically, my mother was murdered when I was only one year old. So naturally, I don't have any explicit memories of her.”

11:17 - Holding space for grief doing the best we can - “We need to engage with and tend to our grief because if not, we're going to pass it onto somebody else.”

20:06 - Getting stuck on grief: Is closure a real thing? - “We never caught her killer. There was a forced resignation in terms of how you pick up life and move forward.”

22:45 - Helping kids understand and tell their loss story - “It was still really helpful for me to feel seen and to feel acknowledged, to be given attention, regardless of whether or not the context was my mother.”

27:20 - Telling your story to people: Should I disclose or not? - “It created this outlet where people think that they have a right to help you figure out your own damn story.”

33:02 - Therapy for therapists: Can I do this? Lindsay’s path in the psychology world - “I felt burdened by the experience. I didn't feel like I was equipping them with skills and so it just became overwhelming.”

45:21 - How The Joyful Jewelry Box was created - “I took a hard left and then decided, instead of just designing jewelry on a whim, now I was doing remembrance and memorial jewelry to help other grievers honor and remember their loved ones.”

About the show

Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about how Lisa is reimagining grief, sign up for her newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.