Join Click and Clack (aka Cody and Dan) as they explore the difficult topic of grief to open up 2024. This episode has special guest Dorrie Beckley, LPC, join Click and Clack to provide clinical examples and expertise. The history of stages of grief, ideas about meaning making, and strategies for coping with grief are introduced. Lastly, don't tune out too quickly as Dorrie concludes this episode with a poem entitled "December, Good Company"

December

On the days when it all feels heavy
When the inner swirl matches the December bleak
I feel adrift
My gaze,
untethered.

Although not alone,
And often in good company,
gratitude will not bring back the things that have disappeared.
When grief and loss are real, too
What then?

I walk along the forested path
of tall straight Ponderosa Pines.
I come upon a slanted one
maybe 15° off a direct line to the sky.

I approach this slanted tree
Like an old friend
With a smile and a longing.

I lay my weary bones to it.
As my belly softened to the butterscotch bark
I turn my cheek to rest,
and my ears to listen.

Of course this tree here does not speak,
but we understood each other.
Maybe words fail anyway,
when it comes to grief.
And perhaps being simply held
here
today
On this gray, breathless morning
is the language of love and loss.

I smile again.
I hear the birds and squirrels scuffling about
More good company.
The mourning dove takes flight
again.

Dorrie Beckley, 2023