There are moments in grief when words land in ways they never have before.
For Leanne, one of those moments came in church as she read the words,
“Give thanks in all circumstances.”
And something in her resisted.
Not because she didn’t have faith.
Not because she didn’t want to believe it.
But because she was a mother whose son had died.
How could she possibly be thankful?
But when reading the words more carefully, she noticed a subtle difference and it shifted her understanding.
Not thankful for.
Thankful in.
One word, and everything softened just enough to let a different kind of understanding in.
In this conversation, Leanne shares the story of her son, Mikael, and what it means to love a child through addiction. She speaks about living in the space between hope and fear, and about continuing to love even when the outcome is not what you prayed for.
She talks about grief not as something to fix or move beyond, but as something that arrives and stays. Something that changes shape over time, but never fully leaves.
Like an unexpected guest.
You can try to shut the door.
But eventually, you learn to live alongside it.
We talk about what it means to carry grief with intention. To choose, again and again, not to be consumed by bitterness. To notice the ways you are still being held, even in the middle of unimaginable loss.
Leanne has found one of those ways through writing.
In her new book, Tattered Hearts and Hopeful Souls, she shares a collection of devotional reflections and poetry that give language to the quiet, often unseen realities of grief. Through her words, she captures what so many feel but cannot express. The silence of a broken heart, the weight of memory, and the small, sacred moments that help carry us forward.
There is no rushing in this conversation.
No easy answers.
Just the steady presence of a mother who has learned, day by day, how to keep going.
And maybe, within her story, there is an invitation.
Not to be thankful for what has been lost.
But to begin, in the smallest of ways, to find moments of gratitude in the midst of it.
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