Joni Sensel
Joni Sensel is the author of Feeling Fate: A Memoir of Love, Intuition, and Spirit (2022). She’s also the author of more than a dozen nonfiction titles for adults, five award-winning novels for young readers, and articles in a variety of print and online magazines. A certified grief educator, she has recently focused her teaching and writing on creativity, spirituality, and experiencing grief. Sensel's adventures have taken her to the corners of fifteen countries, the heights of the Cascade Mountains, the length of an Irish marathon, and the depths of love. A Pacific Northwest native, she lives at the knees of Mount Rainier in Washington State with a puppy who came into her life as a gift that reflected afterlife influence.
Articles:
Digging Deep: Finding Comfort after Husband’s Death
A Sudden Death Tony’s body is stretched on our living room floor. I hunker over my knees on the stepstool in the kitchen, trying not to see his husk from the corner of my eye. Our small house offers nowhere that could hide his departure, and besides, I need to be here near the floor. Where it’s hard to fall down. The floor now unites us. I consider slipping down to the cold laminate, curling into myself there. Its chill seems inviting. But I don’t want to make the volunteer paramedics any more uncomfortable. They’d tried hard. For an hour. […]
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From Woo-Woo to Whew: Why I Embrace the Possible Fiction of Fate
Embracing Fate I don’t own a supply of tinfoil hats or a treasured collection of saints’ fingernail clippings. (And yes, for me the two are equivalent, though I respect your right to draw the line elsewhere.) But I do believe in fate, or at least in a universe where our one-way perception of time is illusive. Wait—don’t throw tomatoes just yet! I know “it was meant to be” is one of the more horrible phrases others sometimes say to those of us who’ve suffered loss. I get it; there’s no comfort there. But I have found comfort in related ideas, […]
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Mourn Like a Dog: Mark the Absence, Maintain Connections
Mourn Like a Dog After my beloved partner, Tony, died without warning early one morning in 2017, I lived for the occasional sense that his spirit was near. Our dogs never reacted to the unseen energy I felt, but they did express loss. The black lab mix, Bape, drooped immediately. His master’s long absence on a trip the previous fall hadn’t fazed this boisterous dog, but after Tony’s death, Bape moped on the dog bed for about ten days before starting to act like himself. Our other dog, Jazz, didn’t seem to react at all for a week. No surprise […]
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