BONUS! Introducing Letters of Light: Monthly Grief Support Born From Loss, Nostalgia & My Dad's Letters

Surprise! I'm popping in with a bonus episode, and I am SO excited about it! 🥹

Today I'm officially introducing you to something I've been quietly working on for months and cannot wait to get into your mailbox. It's called Letters of Light, and it's a monthly letter set created specifically for grievers. And in this quick bonus episode, I'm walking you through everything. The story behind it, the why, and exactly what you'll find inside every single envelope.

This idea was born from so many places. From years of coaching grievers and noticing how much we all crave to truly feel seen. From finding old letters my dad wrote to my grandparents when he was in the Army in his early 20s. From being a millennial who grew up watching the internet come to life and now finds herself deeply craving something slower, more intentional, and more human. And, from becoming a mom and realizing how desperately I want to slow down time.

In a world that is noisier and more digital than ever—and where AI seems to be everywhere—I wanted to create something that was the complete opposite of all of that. Something real, tangible, and that shows up for you every single month in your actual mailbox, from an actual human who has genuinely been there.

✨ The personal story behind Letters of Light
✨ Why I believe the grief space has been missing something really important (and why Letters of Light fills that)
✨ A full walkthrough of everything inside your Letters of Light envelope
✨ The letter: written entirely by me, handwritten first, then printed on beautiful linen cardstock, and signed personally by me with a note just for you
✨ The reflection card: a gentle monthly prompt to sit with, centered around that month's theme
✨ The affirmation card: printed on linen cardstock with a seasonal photo on one side, and a detailed affirmation on the other
✨ Why every single detail was chosen with complete intention
✨ How my background as a grief and soul purpose coach is woven into every piece

Visit https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters for more information and to join us 💌✨ 

Transcript

Welcoming Letters of Light

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Life with Grief podcast. I'm your host, grief and soul purpose coach, and fellow Griever, Tara Ocardo. Letters of Light is officially here. Oh my goodness, you guys, I am incredibly excited to share Letters of Light with you. This idea was truly born from so many different pieces of not only myself, but inspiration from fellow grievers that I have worked with and coached over the years.

Why This Grief Support Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:29

There's this overarching theme, if you will, that I have seen over and over again in the grief experiences of so many people, myself included, and that is having community, but also someone who genuinely sees you in your grief, someone who can actually hold that space, actually validates you in a way that resonates and doesn't try and just gloss over things or fix things, but rather supports you, witnesses you, and gives you some love when you need it the most. For me, my job as a coach and a guide is to help people grieving move forward, not move on, not push them into anything before they're ready, but to really sit with them, meet them where they're at, and give them gentle reframes, perspectives on grief and life after loss, and ultimately tools to navigate it all. That being said, there is so much noise out there, especially in this digital age and with the rise of AI, which seems to just be everywhere nowadays. It can feel incredibly overwhelming just in general, let alone navigating a loss or multiple losses on top of it.

How Nostalgia Sparked the Idea

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So that got my wheels turning. And not long before this idea fully came to fruition for me, my cousin had actually found letters that my dad wrote to my grandparents in his early 20s when he was in the army. And I've always loved my dad's handwriting, but I just kind of refell in love with his handwriting and the sentimentality behind it. And I just kept thinking, like, man, it is such a bummer that sending letters isn't a thing anymore. You know, I'm not gonna say it never happens. My sweet grandmother, my mom's mom, like she will still send me a birthday card and things like that. But I feel like in a lot of ways, it's kind of a lost art. And I don't know about you, but I miss that nostalgia. I was born and raised in the 1990s, and it was so interesting growing up as a millennial in such a specific time, like literally watching internet really come to life and instant messenger and social media and MySpace and like and all the things, right? And I crave that. I don't know about you, but I crave that. I miss that. I'm seeing that a lot on social media now, right? I think people are missing that nostalgia, especially with how much AI is involved in our life now. And I miss slowing down and savoring things. And I don't know about you, but I have totally fallen into the trap of moving quickly and a little bit of hustle culture and being heads down on projects and things and coming up for air and realizing like I'm missing life a little bit in the process. And once I had my daughter, this became especially clear because nothing made me want to slow down time more than that, more than raising her and watching her grow. So now, with all of these thoughts in mind, plus the overwhelm of the digital space and social media at times, let's be real, the beauty of sending a letter and receiving something slowly and intentionally, and wanting to embrace that slowness and nostalgia, that is very much how Letters of Light was born. So the name Letters of Light came to me a bit more simply and quickly. As the name implies, I really want this to be a letter that brings some light into your life, something that you could look forward to receiving, brightens up your day and your mailbox, something that isn't some junk mail or yet another bill, and is just a welcome respite to your day-to-day. I want it to be something that brings you joy, comfort, but also really intentionally helps you navigate your grief and let you know that there is at least one other person out there that sees

What Letters of Light Includes

SPEAKER_00 4:24

you. So Letters of Light is a monthly offering that encompasses three pieces within it. And we're gonna dive into each of those really quickly here in just a second. But first, I want to say each month is a different theme that deals with some aspect of loss, grief, or navigating life after loss in some way. So, for example, this idea of finding yourself again after loss, the firsts, seconds, and thirds, when the holidays are really hurtful and painful, navigating the weight that you're carrying day to day, grief sort of in the in between. So maybe you're not in that really early shock and ache and anguish so much anymore, but you don't find yourself being particularly healed and you're kind of lacking clarity on where and how to move on, right? So the list goes on. I create each piece with that central theme in mind so it feels really cohesive every month. So, that all being said, without further ado, let's just quickly dive into what you will receive in

Opening the Envelope

SPEAKER_00 5:27

each one. Okay, let's go ahead and literally open this together because I really want you to get the feel for exactly what you're gonna get here. So, first and foremost, just want to call out this fun little letters of light stamp graphic on the side. And by the way, when you receive this, the addressing, it is all gonna be handwritten by me. I am the one that is writing your name, your address, all the things. Like this is literally going to feel like you are getting a letter from a friend. So when you open it, this is what you'll see. And everything is sort of clipped together here nicely. So you open it up. And again, this is gonna look different every month. So I'm gonna get to this card, this affirmation card here in a second. But for the very first month, where we have sort of a lavender thing going on, the letter explains it. But this is what you'll see. And even down to this little paper clip here, it's like little gold with a little heart. Like I was so intentional with picking out every single piece that

The Letter and Personal Touches

SPEAKER_00 6:25

goes into this. Okay, so we are going to look at these two in a second, but first and foremost, of course, the letter. Now, of course, I have to call out the fact that this is in fact typed and not handwritten. While I know that sounds like it might defeat the purpose, the reality is I am only one person. And the thing about letters of light is I want these to reach as many people as possible. So to realistically do that, I do have to have these typed. However, I feel like it's very important to know that this is completely and entirely written by me. Every single piece you will receive in Letters of Light is written by me. It is not written by AI. AI has nothing to do with it. It is all designed by me, like literally everything. You are getting my real honest thoughts, support, guidance, and companionship through this letter. And I do actually sit down, handwrite it first before going ahead and typing it up to get it printed. And I do feel like you can really hear and see and sense my personality in this letter just by how I write or how I might structure a sentence or something. And you may or may not know my personality well yet, but you will definitely see it come through here. Now, where it does get personalized is all of these are sent directly to my house. I personally, there's not a name here, but I will write your name. I sign it myself with a little personalized note for you. And every single one of these with the letter and the two other pieces that we'll talk about in a second are all hand assembled by me. There is no middleman. Every single thing in Letters of Light is designed, written, assembled, and sent to you by yours truly. Me. Like I will literally be the one going to the post office and dropping these off and putting the stamp on and everything. So those are the personal touches I really want you to feel.

Reflection Card Prompts

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Okay, so let's grab the last two pieces. And next I want to talk about the reflection card. So this is really special and really hammers home the theme of the month, if you will. So for this very first one, our little theme here is finding yourself again. I alluded to that earlier. On this card, you can expect things like a couple of prompts, exercises, or really just questions to get you thinking and moving gently toward a place of peace, of healing. And it's really just meant to hold you in that. I envision this being something that you can keep near you, you can keep coming back to, you can write on it. However, you want to use this, it is here to support you and move you forward and even get you thinking about your grief and life after loss a little differently. And what makes Letters of Light, I feel like really unique is for those who don't know, I am a grief and soul purpose coach. And there's lots of grief coaches out there, there's lots of soul purpose coaches out there. But what I really try and do in my own coaching practice and what I really want reflected here in Letters of Light is to kind of combine those two specialties to be able to witness you in your grief, really see you and support you through that, but also to help you live your best, most beautiful, most vibrant, happy life after loss because you are so deserving of that. And that's also really where letters of light comes from. It's this idea that yes, we can feel so stuck in the darkness and there is just this cloud hanging above our head after we go through a loss, and it can feel impossible to shake sometimes. But I almost liken it to a storm, right? You know, the sun eventually kind of like peaks out again. You get this little sliver, this little crack of light. And that's exactly what I want all of this to be for you. And however I can help you along in that, that's what I want to do. So this is not kind of just, you know, a me trying to be a friend, just sending you something. Like it's really intentional. It's I'm kind of working in a little bit of my coaching and guiding into this too, but in like a really friendly way, in a companionship way, in a way that doesn't just like shove it in your face, if that makes sense. It's just supposed to be really uplifting. And I hope you feel that. I know you will feel that in every letter of light

Affirmation Card Details

SPEAKER_00 10:48

you receive. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and put this one down and pick up our last piece here, the affirmation card. What I love most about this card, in addition to being yet another very gentle tool to help you forward in your grief and your life after loss, is that I was really intentional with what paper I used for this. I know this might sound sort of funny that I'm bringing up paper. It's like, okay, who cares? But I want you to know that like I'm literally thinking of everything. And actually, this and the reflection card are the same material. This is not flimsy. This is a high-quality linen cardstock. And as you will see, each month we'll have a different photo on one side that speaks to the season or the theme. I'll actually like put this up a little bit closer. I don't know how well you can see this cardstock on here. But anyway, hopefully you can you can kind of see it. But we have this beautiful photo. On the other side is your affirmation. And as you can see, this is not just a one-liner. You get a more detailed, thoughtful affirmation here that's in this really fun handwritten script. And with this, I wanted it to be something that you could literally frame, like either side. You can have the affirmation facing forwards and put it maybe in like your bathroom, on a mirror, on your nightstand, in your car, wherever, or flip it and just enjoy a really beautiful photo and even frame that one if you feel called to. I almost wanted this to feel postcard-esque in a way, and it literally is postcard size, so it's kind of perfect. But I don't know about you, but I love traveling at least as much as I can, leaning into new cultures, exploring the world. And I wanted this to feel sort of like that, to give that vibe. And I still have postcards that like my mom or dad might have sent me or other family members. My parents had kept postcards that I sent them when I was like studying and living abroad for a little bit. And that's really what I wanted to bring in to this affirmation card. And again, give you just more than just like one very generic one-line affirmation. And this I hope is just a really beautiful way to give that to you and almost make you feel like you have a pen pal in this life after loss, if you will. And as the name Letters of Light implies, I really just want this to be a small beacon of light in your life from someone who has been there, who is there, because my parents' deaths will always stay with me. And I know your losses, whatever they may be, will always be a part of you too. So I just want you to know that you have someone that sees that and has put something together to help you feel seen in that. And I know your loss or losses, whatever they may be, will always be a part of you too. So I just want you to know that you have someone who sees that. But if you're like me and also appreciate the slow, intentional, meaning things in life as well, or you're trying to lean more into that, I know you're gonna love this. This is such a fun thing that I have never offered before. I've never seen anyone offer it quite like this. And I really just envision this being a beautiful combination of actual tangible grief support and nostalgia. And I just want this to be a fun way to bring us all together and make us feel more connected at the end of the day.

Join Letters of Light

SPEAKER_00 14:14

So if you're interested in joining or at least learning more, visit losses become gains.com/slash letters for more information and to join this amazing community of grievers who appreciate the art of sending and receiving a letter too. I am sending you a huge thank you for tuning in to today's episode, my friend. Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already, and share this episode or this podcast with someone who could use it too. I'll catch you in the next episode.