People often ask me why I chose to specialize in grief and loss. Isn’t it depressing, talking about death all the time? they want to know. I have a number of different answers to this question. Depending on who’s asking, I may talk about the losses in my own past that led me to this work. Or I may talk about all the genuine, warm and wise colleagues I’ve met through my work with hospice. Or I might speak to some of the profound ways my clients have inspired me with their stories. Or I may just make a joke, maybe something to the tune of how it wasn’t so much that I chose to specialize in grief and loss so much as they chose to specialize in me.

Next time, though, I think I might just offer up this little gem, instead: