6 Months of Grief Project: Day 75

Work Drag

This is Day 75 of my #6MonthsOfGrief Project. To learn more about this practice, feel free to visit Day One, where I explain this project in more detail.

Being an artist, putting together my work drag every day is a form of expression for me. Thanks to some very skilled shopping friends, I was able to score a lot of new, fun clothes to wear to the office. My workplace is actually very easy and casual - it's not necessary to get super dressed up at all, but it's something I really enjoy doing. My life has changed so dramatically in so many ways, and I think being able to express myself this way is helping with the sudden changes. 

With my new schedule and this Grief Project, I don't have a lot of time to paint or work on my radio show right now, so this is a relatively easy creative outlet for me. That being said, it's quite challenging to find cute clothes for fat ladies and whenever I see a fellow fat human rocking some excellent style, I admire them greatly because I know how difficult it is. I also like being part of this tribe.

There is a shady glade behind the building where I work, sandwiched in between various industrial businesses. I try to take a daily photo back there to send to my shopping friends, so they can see what I've put together. There is a surprising amount of nature back there - I always see quail and squirrels, and for a little while I can look at trees and feel sun on my face, before heading back into cubicle land. It's a nice break to go sit under the trees and do my silly outfit pose to send to my friends. Maybe I'll start sharing more "outfit of the day" pictures on my Instagram feed.

Finding these moments of creative play and calm is also part of the grief journey.

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I am very aware that this project can bring up a lot around yours or other's grief and loss, I will always follow every post with some online grief support resources that have helped me. Please feel free to let me know of online support that you have found healing in your grief, as well:

Art with Grief:

• Photographer [Sarah Treanor] Takes Moving Self-Portraits to Cope with Her Fiance's Death by Jillian Wong
• When the Fall Comes, a film about Grief by Adriana Marchione
• Self-Portraits: Expressing Emotion Through Art on What's Your Grief?
• The Hard Romance of Grief by Mark Liebenow
• The poetry of John O’Donohue

Resources for Widows:

• Widowed Village
• Camp Widow

• Soaring Spirits International

Living with Grief Resources:

• Modern Loss's excellent resource list
• Grief Bibliography on Grief Healing

• Teresa “TL” Bruce's What to Say When Someone Dies
• They Brought Cookies: For A New Widow, Empathy Eases Death's Pain by Ann Finkbeiner on NPR
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

• Megan Devine’s Refuge in Grief

• The Geography of Sorrow: Francis Weller on Navigating Our Loses, interviewed by Tim McKee in Sun Magazine

• How to Be a Friend in Deed by Bruce Feiler in the New York Times

• 12 Things to Know About the First Year of Grieving Someone You Can’t Live Without by Laurie Costanza in Elephant Magazine

And remember, I am sharing this project on a variety of platforms, including my Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook feeds, as well as my Pinterest page on Grief. I use the hashtag #6MonthsOfGrief, so it can easily be found on any platform. Please share this project with anyone you think might need it.


Thank you, and see you tomorrow.