My friend Erika Enggren and I have both experienced the profound loss of people near and dear to us. In Erika’s case, it was the death of her stepdad, whom she had known for most of her life. For me, it was the loss of an extremely close friend I had known for over twenty years.

These unfortunate, simultaneous events sparked a meaningful conversation between us — a conversation about grief and the day-to-day coping mechanisms we use to move through the pain of loss.

Erika Enggren is an artist through and through. She’s an actress, a painter, and an incredibly expressive poet. During our conversations about our recent losses, I found her to be insightful and astute, offering comfort and helping to normalize the experiences of birth and death. Given how universal these experiences are, we realized these are conversations that need to happen.

So, we brought our discussion to this podcast episode. And wouldn’t you know it — we managed to have a conversation about grief and loss that wasn’t depressing. Personally, I found it to be a helpful step in my healing process. Hopefully, it will be the same for you.