Mourning Cloak Podcast – trailer
Grief is the shadow of love. In this podcast, I talk about what grief does…
Mourning Cloak
Mourning Cloak
After reading thousands of pages on grief — in research, in literature, and in life itself — and after losing my father, my grandmother, two daughters, two close friends, and many others, I have come to understand something essential.
Grief is not the opposite of love. It is its shadow.
Where love has been deep, its shadow is long.
As a pastor, a researcher, and a companion in sorrow, I have walked beside many whose hearts have been broken open. And once, while wondering how I might share what I have learned, a mourning cloak butterfly landed on the rock in our yard — dark and beautiful, as if to remind me that love never disappears. It only changes form.
I am Juha M. Itkonen, theologian, researcher, and educator. My work centers on the question of how we can find meaning, hope, and connection in the midst of loss, change, and the awareness of life’s limits.
I believe that genuine growth begins with the courage to recognize our own vulnerability — to face both the cracks in ourselves and in the world around us. In those fragile places, something deeper often emerges: a quiet openness to grace and transformation.
