Grief & Happiness

If you've ever wondered how a dying loved one's request could become a calling, episode 440 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Ceramic artist Rae Delai shares how a promise to her dying aunt led her to leave nursing and open White Lily Urns, crafting memorial pieces — including a teapot urn for a young woman lost to anorexia and a reef urn that becomes part of the ocean.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Rae's path from 30 years in nursing to becoming a full-time ceramic artist(01:27) How her dying aunt's request for an urn led to White Lily Urns(08:30) Why Australian culture — and even most potters — avoid making urns(13:54) The meditative discipline of clay: why you can't create while angry(14:33) How clients find Rae's work and why most of her urns ship overseas(16:38) The personal stories behind her urns, including a dragon urn for a teen who died by suicide(19:00) Designing a custom teapot urn for a young woman who died of anorexia(22:26) Why ceramics are like crystals — and the surprises every kiln firing brings(24:28) How grieving clients choose an urn in the moment, without overthinking it(25:40) The reef-friendly urn Rae created for her own grief, built to become part of a coral reefRae Delai is the ceramic artist behind White Lily Urns, a memorial pottery studio in Atherton, Far North Queensland, Australia. After 30 years as a nurse in intensive care, midwifery, and palliative care, she took up pottery as a creative outlet — and when her dying aunt asked her to make an urn for her ashes, Rae found few handmade options existed in Australia. That gap led her to leave nursing for a full-time business making custom urns, capturing each loved one's story with input from families. She now sells through her website and Etsy as White Lily Urns, shipping worldwide.On the episode, Rae drew on her nursing background and her craft to discuss death, grief, and the comfort of creating something meaningful from loss. She described Australians' general discomfort with death, even among potters, and how nursing taught her to sit with grieving families without absorbing their pain. She shared personal projects: a teapot urn for a young woman who died of anorexia, a dragon-faced urn for a teen who died by suicide, and a reef urn made for her own grief that dissolves into the ocean. She closed on the centeredness clay demands and the realities of running her business alone.Connect with Rae Delai:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookYouTubeXPinterestLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt hijacked by grief at the worst possible moment, Episode 438 of the Grief and Happiness Podcast is for you. Grief guide Sylvia Wolfer reveals why exhaustion, fogginess, and emotional overwhelm are real biological responses to loss — not weakness — and shares the simple scheduling technique that helped her stop being ambushed by grief and finally feel in control. If grief has ever felt bigger than you, this episode will change the way you see it.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:50) Sylvia's personal journey through compound and unattended grief (04:55) Why grief research became Sylvia's lifeline — and the two gifts it gave her (05:46) Reclaiming agency: the scheduling technique that puts you back in control of grief (08:14) Why grief never goes away — and why we wouldn't want it to (11:10) What living in Buddhist countries taught Sylvia about impermanence and loss (13:55) How Western culture leaves us unprepared for grief (18:34) The physical reality of grief: what loss does to your brain, body, and energy (22:37) Why hydration and basic body care are powerful emotional tools (25:17) Grief as a wound: why it needs intentional care, not just time (28:11) The power of showing up for grievers — and how small acts of kindness change everythingSylvia Wolfer is a grief guide, mindfulness practitioner, and movement teacher whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and gentle movement. Having lost both parents and two siblings — her father and younger brother before she turned seventeen, and her older brother just before COVID lockdown — she brings profound personal lived experience to her practice. That final loss became a turning point: rather than continue living at the mercy of unattended grief, Sylvia dove into the science of loss and emerged with a framework to help others rebuild steadiness and agency. She offers 1:1 sessions, self-paced courses, and online Pilates, and has been featured across multiple grief-focused platforms worldwide.In this episode, Sylvia shares how immersing herself in grief research gave her two transformative gifts: the reassurance that her responses were entirely normal, and a sense of belonging to a universal human experience. She introduces the practice of grief agency — acknowledging a wave when it rises but consciously choosing when to tend to it, so grief no longer arrives as an ambush. She also explores the physical reality of loss, explaining how grief keeps the body in a state of high alert and why tending to basics like hydration, sleep, and movement is a foundational emotional strategy. Weaving in Buddhist perspectives on impermanence, she reflects on why Westerners are so often blindsided by loss, and closes with a warm validation of community and the life-changing power of not leaving grievers alone in their silence.Connect with Sylvia Wolfer:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramPodcast: Sylvia's VoiceLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.