“healthy” isn’t the same for everyone

Trigger warning for talking about weight loss/gain. In the fall of 2017, when I was 19 years old, I lost a lot of weight. I was on a medication for chronic migraine that was working well at first, but did come with a lot of side effects — including weight loss. I didn’t mind the

Loss and Chronic Pain

Earlier this week, on August 2, 2022, my cat Frodo was euthanized. Similar to our other cat Snowflake – who died on May 8, 2020 – he had blood work done which showed he was starting to have kidney failure. He had lived a good long life, and we didn’t want things to get worse

A Poem for Holy Week

if the pain the grief the ache the loss the longing  associated with death  like on Friday and Saturday  feel far more present and real than the hope the joy the beauty  the goodness of life and resurrection  like on Sunday  you are not alone you are loved may you one day find love  grace

Some Things I Wrote This Week

It’s not uncommon for me to draw from things I and others write on social media to include in my blog or to spur some more thoughts on. So, today, I’ll share some things I’ve shared on social media over the past week.   tw/cw/cn – pet death [about Snowflake, my 14-year-old cat who was

Seven Pounds of Love: Saying Goodbye to Snowflake

TW/CW/CN – death, grief   https://danieljonce.com/blog/imaginary-future I read this article last week, after the anniversary of Rachel Held Evans’ death. Little did I know that just a few days later, I would need these words more than ever. “What an odd thing to write about on this, the first anniversary of Rachel’s death. What an

Why Body Positivity Matters

This article is inspired by many body positivity related posts I’ve seen online, like this Twitter thread from user @margechimpson: “Should I start a count of every time my sister (or anyone else) tells me, ‘You look great, like you’ve lost weight!’ And I say, ‘No. I haven’t. I’m not trying to. I am very

Defining Failure

Failure is a part of all our lives. Personally, it has been eating me up lately in various aspects of my life. But I’m learning that experiencing failure does not make me a failure. I’ve been continually reminded lately that having compassion and love for myself is important. It’s oftentimes easy for me to show those things