How Grief Unlocks Hidden Doors to Peace and Growth

November 2, 2025November 2, 2025Posted by Steve Blaising2 Comments

I never expected grief to open the door to such magical visitations after I buried my parents.

I’m not superstitious. But, I believe the supernatural pokes into the everyday world in a wide variety of forms and places.

An unexpected visitor surprised me at my mother’s grave nine years ago.

Grief and magical places — Grief can land us in magical places/Steve Blaising/Parents’ gravestone, December 2016

But a very different visitor appeared to me days after my father died, the one whose image you see to the left on my parents’ gravestone.

I captured this moment on video.

Tags: Endurance

Mastering Life’s Challenges: How to Win the 5-Second Game

September 11, 2024September 12, 2024Posted by Steve Blaising6 Comments

Ask Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer, who unexpectedly lost his beautiful wife to natural causes in 2009 at age 50, how to master challenges like the sudden death of a spouse.

Life challenges Cowboys coach — Cowboys Head Defensive Coach Mike Zimmer faces family losses/Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Ask him how he coped when he got a phone call that his son and best friend, a talented NFL coach himself, was found dead on his couch alone in his apartment at age 38.

The sudden death of a spouse or a child ranks number one as life’s most significant stressor.

Ask Coach Zimmer how football, the game he loves, knows, and coaches is a metaphor for handling life’s toughest challenges.

Tags: Grief, tragedy

Free-falling grief in the holidays? Embrace the warmth that heals

December 3, 2023December 4, 2024Posted by Steve Blaising2 Comments

Grief piles up for many in the holidays.

Recently, our senior pastor at Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Bryan Dunagan, died at age 44. HIs wife, Ali, and three children grieve a sudden loss as the holidays begin.

Just a few weeks later, another rising star, Jack Gibbons, age 36, co-founder of Bandera Ventures, died in a neighborhood auto accident leaving behind his wife, Sarah, and their two-year-old daughter.

Sudden tragedies are like free falling.