Summary: You’re listening to The Joyful Mourning Podcast Episode No. 58. Each week during the month of November I am interviewing women about what it looked like to navigate the holiday season while grieving. If you are joining us for the first time, make sure you go back and listen to episode 56 with Lindsey Dennis & episode 57 with Ashlee Karasch for incredibly helpful and relatable wisdom about navigating the holidays while grieving. In today’s episode I have the privilege of interviewing Mary Catelyn Stamm. She offers gracious and tender words that are honest but bring comfort and hope. We talk about what makes the holidays so hard amidst grief, we work through the expectations we put on ourselves and expectations others put on us and how to navigate that. Mary Catelyn offers invaluable wisdom about communicating expectations with your spouse or partner and how even though those conversations are messy it’s vital and incredibly worth it. We talk about creating traditions and I loved that Mary Catelyn said “I wish I had given myself permission to not expect myself to do all the holiday things that first Christmas as if she was still with us.” She goes in to more detail about why she feels that way, what traditions she will keep and what she will not be doing any longer. Her thoughts on having a niece very close in age to her baby girl who died, is incredible and will surprise you. And if you are listening because you love a grieving mom, Mary Catelyn shares very freeing words of wisdom for you as well. Lastly, make sure you listen all the way to the end -- Mary Catelyn’s last words of encouragement may be just what you need to get through this holiday season. I promise, they are that amazing. -- FREE CHRISTMAS DAILY DEVOTIONAL I created the simplest and most manageable Christmas Daily Devotional for you that is FREE. To be the first to know when this free helpful tool is available head to www.themorning.com/christmas. Sign up there and as soon as the daily devotional is ready, you will get an email with all the details. --- SHOW NOTES: www.themorning.com/listen THE JOYFUL MOURNING COMMUNITY: www.thejoyfulmourningcommunity.com GIFT SHOP FOR GRIEVING MOTHERS: www.themorning.com/giftshop THE JOYFUL MORNING INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/thejoyfulmorning
