Mike Russell

Having grown up in the Air Force in the 50's and 60's, I was able to travel with my family around the world to various bases which opened my mind to the issues affecting people. I grew up in Arizona after my dad retired. I got married in 1975 and was married for 34 years, during which I graduated from Oregon State University and went to work in banking. After the death of my wife in 2009, and through the opening up of my senses during the grief process, I wrote poetry, created a blog, wrote a book and reconnected with my best friend. We created a business called T Michael Healing Arts in Beaverton Oregon after being married. As a business, we serve the Holistic crowd, put on classes, and workshops, as well as attend various fairs around the Northwest. We have two books out at the moment, and contribute monthly articles to the Sedona Journal of Emergence. My journey in grief through all the deaths in my own family has brought me to the point where I became a certified grief counselor, minister, and have written a book on my spiritual journey through grief, as well as many articles on the subject. My goal is to help as many people as possible through their own grief journeys by telling them my story and supporting them with the hope that there are others out there that will support and understand them, and that it is possible to come out of the fog in one piece.

Articles:

Dropping into Memory

Anniversaries come and go but some linger like the drops of rain hanging on the humming bird feeder outside. They don’t want to let go and so they hang on until the weather changes and dries them up or drop from their perch with the force of the wind. Anniversaries are important reminders of the past that are celebrated with the care that should be afforded them. But, they become less celebrated after someone leaves us and remind us what we miss and can not do anything about. When these days come up for me, I sometimes do not even […]

Grief: A More Peaceful Definition

The word “grief” brings the impression of negativity, like when you are supposed to act, feel or think a certain way. This continues through the time line that is created by other’s thoughts around us that have lost someone. It is almost like grievers are the ones being directed on stage by an unknown force. But my contention is that grief would be much better explained by the phrase, “moments of remembrance.” Think about it, we would no longer be caught in the trap of society’s control-conscious, albeit good intentions, of the word grief. Moments of remembrance completely frees us […]

Moments of Silence: The Grief Process

Deep within the crevices of our soul, we long for the moments of silence that can take us away from the sights, sounds and feelings that are bombarding us all the time. In grief, these bombardments seem to be heightened mainly because we don’t know how to turn them off. You are either too weak, lost, overwhelmed, angry, or rationalizing that you are super-human. There are so many bombs being dropped that it is hard to find a moment of silence. My experiences during these bombardments left me partially deaf. What I mean by that is I could sense people […]

After Loss: Do We Ever Return to ‘Normal’?

Often during the grief journey, I wondered if a normal life could be obtained again. Of course, there is a big assumption here that I had a normal life to begin with. So, considering that we all come from skewed visions of what normal is, my definition was being married, having kids, working at one job my whole life and rocking in the chair on the porch next to the one that I married when I was 21. Okay, it does seem a little Beaver Cleaver. But really, normal is something that we all come at from different […]

The Three Points

My experience with grief tells me that while grief is different for everyone, there are commonalities in the questions grievers ask. How do I move forward? Why does grief take so long to get over? What does normal look like now? These are just some of the questions that linger after the death of anyone and can keep the strongest of us feeling confined. I was there in that situation trying to decide if I even wanted to fight my way out. It turns out that at the time I did not even have the strength to begin. If I […]

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