Big Emotions

April 2026 | Living REAL with Heidi Coleman

A friend texted me two words this week: big emotions.

It was her answer to "how was your trip?"

I didn't need more than that. I knew exactly what she meant. And I've been thinking about those two words ever since — about how sometimes they're the only honest thing left to say.

We lose people. We watch people we love fade. We hear about a friend, a mother, sitting vigil beside her daughter in a foreign country — her daughter who went to celebrate with friends, who became ill, who is now in a sedated coma far from home. And we feel the weight of it even when it isn't ours to carry.

What do you say to that?

Big emotions.

My dad fell this week. I got the text last night. There was a follow up in the same message — he was eating ice cream. I don't know yet if he's okay. I'm sitting with that this morning.

That's the thing about caregiving. The calls come when they come. The not-knowing settles in and you carry it until you have more information. And sometimes all you can do is wait.

I lost my friend Matt last year during the holidays. I still reach for him sometimes — a thought that wants to be a text I can't send. When my mom passed, something in me let go. I didn't expect that. Grief has a way of releasing what we've been quietly holding without even knowing it. When Matt passed, I let go some more.

I don't have a tidy explanation for any of it.

Big emotions.

Some weeks I sit down to write and the words are waiting. Other weeks there's just silence. I've learned the silence is something too — not failure, not emptiness. Just the pause between one breath and the next.

Both/and. I want to write AND sometimes there's nothing to say. I want to help AND sometimes there's nothing to do. I want to hold it all together AND some weeks the most honest thing I can offer is this:

Two words.

Big emotions.

If that's where you are today — I see you. You don't have to name it any bigger than that.

They'll wait.

— Heidi