Thank you for visiting my page. Please read below to see why I am running the NYC HALF this year….

I have found myself in the land of grief quite frequently over the past year. A significant number of friends have lost parents or siblings to illness and I have been part of a group that regularly meets at our synagogue to help them say kaddish. It has been life-affirming to stand together in community with those remembering loved ones, to provide a hug or a smile, hear a story or to just be present. Nonetheless, I still find myself overwhelmed in a world where there is so much loss and trauma on the front page of the paper each day. It is all too easy to feel there is no act a person can do to make a meaningful difference.

Walking through the land of grief this year, I chanced upon the podcast, “All There Is with Anderson Cooper.” Through a deeply personal version of story telling and interviews, he shares the challenges of facing his own mother’s death as well as the earlier sudden deaths of his father and brother that continue to color his perception and approach to life. Groping for answers to questions that have no easy solution, he takes the audience on a journey that does not solve a riddle, but rather, gives the listener tools to examine the losses and grief that are part of their own story.

While time and again, I have found myself wishing for a way off the land of grief, I have been here enough times to know that there are no tickets to purchase to travel to and from. So my hope is that while I am here, I can use my own personal experiences to make things a little easier for others. Toward that end, I am raising money for Good Grief Inc. which helps provide support, and teaches resilience and healthy coping to local grieving kids and families. Spring is right around the corner.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Jason