Someone just shared with me their tradition of honoring their lost loved ones on their birthday. They give a toast to them with whatever drink was their favorite. When asked what my sister, Erica’s, favorite drink was, I immediately remembered her special concoction of “cookie juice”- (see recipe below). Another thing that we can incorporate into traditions that honor our loved ones is sharing family recipes and passing them down. What are some of your favorite family traditional recipes? 💝🍪🥛

Good Monday Morning- and Groundhog Day! Here in PA, our most famous prophetic rodent is named Punxsatawney Phil. He resides in western PA and draws lots of people to this small town every February. Apparently, Groundhog Day stemmed from an ancient Christian holiday called Candlemas- basically a halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. I love how this has become a fun tradition at a time when most of us in PA are getting tired of the cold winter weather. Traditions and rituals help us to keep going and have something to look forward to. Rituals can also be personal things that we do to honor a lost loved one’s life or birthday. A new tradition/ritual that I started this year to honor my sister’s birthday was to buy a “Carvel Cookie Puss” cake complete with her name, Erica, written on it. It was a good way to remember her and the laughter and joy we shared over this simple thing. What are some of the things that you do as traditions to remember and honor your loved ones? Week 7 of the 12 week program is dedicated to creating Traditions and Rituals based on memories of loved ones. 💝 Julie

When you look up this statement, meta’s response is pretty good “Sunsets and sunrises symbolize the power of daily renewal, offering a, "fiery kiss to the night" or a promise of a new, blank page. They represent beauty, peace, and the ability to start over.” To take this a step further, I believe that one of the gifts, that anyone who has suffered with grief and loss can gain, is newfound appreciation of these free daily reminders of the natural beauty in our world. Incorporating them into a ritual of gratitude and intentionally seeking them out can help us on our healing journeys.

I have spent the last 31 years as a social worker and have walked along side many fellow grievers. My journey became personal when I lost my baby sister 7 years ago to colon cancer. It has taken me years to process. I know now that grief can actually bring you unexpected gifts such as strength, resilience, empathy, appreciation for little things in life, feeling more connected to nature and the spiritual world, to name a few. I named my community after my sister’s Etsy jewelry brand- “One Free Soul” and am hoping to honor her legacy and entrepreneurial spirit by helping others on their journey to not only survive, but thrive and learn to appreciate the gifts along the way. It’s not easy work, but it’s so worth it!