When Sara Rian’s mother unexpectedly died in 2018, her world, and her words,  changed forever. 

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This episode is available in video here.

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What began as a private act of survival through poetry slowly became a bridge to others who were grieving too. Her poems, often found reaching grieving hearts through social media feeds, give voice to what so many can’t yet name: the ache, the confusion, the beauty, and the brutal honesty of grief.

In this conversation, Nina and Sara trace the ways grief reshapes not only the heart but also the body, relationships, and creative expression. Sara shares how poetry became both her mirror and her medicine, helping her navigate the duality of love and pain, the tension between vulnerability and protection, and the ongoing work of tending to loss as both a therapist and a human being who lost her mother to suicide.

Together, they explore what it means to live inside the messiness of grief — where healing isn’t about tidying the pain but learning to move with it. 

The episode both opens and closes with two of Sara’s poems, a quiet reminder that love doesn’t end where life does.

Key Takeaways

• Grief reshapes how we inhabit our bodies, our creativity, and our relationships.
• Writing can become a form of survival; a place to meet emotions without needing to fix them.
• The mother–child bond leaves an indelible mark on how we grieve and love.
• Grief isn’t only love, it’s also raw, contradictory, and profoundly human.
• Healing asks for tenderness toward the body as much as the heart.
• Artistic expression can transform isolation into shared understanding.

Follow Grief and Light wherever you tune in, and join us as we keep exploring the many ways love and loss coexist.

Guest: Sara Rian

• Grief Writer • Author • Therapist
• sararianbooks.com
• Get the Books
• @sara_rian_books

Hosted by: Nina Rodriguez

• Creator of Grief and Light, Grief Guide
• griefandlight.com
• @griefandlight
• Resting Grief Face on Substack

Grief Support Resources for the Road:

• Grief Tending Toolkit
• Access our online community

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