I’m thinking of how often this happens. Entire families gone. Every second. Across the street. Across the ocean. Across the table.

Every loss is our loss. Every loss belongs to someone. We belong to each other. We must.

I worked one of the hardest hospital shifts I’ve ever worked in ten years.

I accompanied a physician to tell someone their entire family died.

I’m not okay. They’re not okay.

Author & Chaplain @jspark3000.bsky.social discusses Western’s fixation on rushing grief when it’s often a lifelong process. After my brother’s death, I was only given 3 bereavement days, and it took a toll on me which led me to leave my job.
Follow my Substack for more! #griefandloss

I'm excited about this episode that I did with Korean hospital chaplain and author, @jspark3000.bsky.social . We talked about intergenerational trauma, memorializing those lost to v*olence, and Black and Asian solidarity. Really enjoyed chatting w/him.

open.substack.com/pub/randykim...

“The wars will end and the leaders will shake hands,
and that old woman will remain waiting for her martyred son,
and that girl will wait for her beloved husband,
and the children will wait for their heroic father,
I do not know who sold the homeland
but I know who paid the price.”
— Mahmoud Darwish

Just sharing on my birthday, I applied for a master’s in counseling program and I got accepted. 😊🙌

It was really a long shot as I’ve been a chaplain for eleven years but thankfully I was accepted just three hours after the interview.

My hope is to be both a chaplain and a therapist. 🫶🔥

“Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear.”
— James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1962)

People not in the Epstein files:

- drag queens
- transgender athletes
- librarians
- Black journalists
- “radical leftist scum”
- hungry family needing SNAP benefits
- workers on strike
- the cast of Sesame Street

This comment still rings true:

“First they came for the journalists
and I did not speak out
because no one knew what happened.”

Keith never got to pop the champagne on New Year’s Eve when he was k*lled by an off-duty I*CE officer.

He should still be here and he deserves to be remembered.

[Second photo by @jtknoxroxs.bsky.social ♥️🫶]

Keith Porter Jr. was a 43 year old father of two, he was beloved by his coworkers and customers at Home Depot, he was working on a documentary for people of color in San Bernardino and how they coped with the pandemic, he was raising funds to support battered women.

My patient’s last words on her deathbed with dozens of family with her:

“Take care of all of yourselves. Please be united. I can’t do it for you anymore.”

😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

and had planned on becoming a neonatal nurse. Her family and friends called her “Bre,” “Breeway,” and “Breezy.” She should still be here and deserves to be remembered.
#BreonnaTaylor #sayhername

Breonna Taylor's legacy: Caring, ‘super goofy’ and treasured her job as a paramedic As an EMT, Taylor would sometimes work 15-hour shifts. “Literally she goes out her way for everybody. She would go above and beyond.”

Breonna Taylor was a paramedic and then an ER Tech and PRN, she worked up to 15 hour shifts and was on the frontlines in 2020. She was 26 years old, the first grandchild of her family, a godmother, loved to play board games,

www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...

Any therapist or clergy or educator who cannot speak up against f*scism and only remains “inspiring” is unqualified for their role.

You cannot self-help your way out of state-sponsored violence any more than you can rearrange some thoughts to cure trauma.

The ICU nurse Alex Pretti, murdered by 🧊, was also working on scientific research to help prevent recurrent C. diff, a very common infection in hospitals. His research would certainly improve and save many lives.

Alex is third here with his colleagues. www.vacsp.research.va.gov/CSP_2004/CSP...

organizing mutual aid, raising funds for organizations, and archiving this moment in history.

These are the very actions that push back against f*scism and give back power and justice to the people.

I will never believe that protests are just “virtue signaling” or “performative.”

Many of these protests are also actively blocking I*E, breaking up any forms of militarization, sheltering and providing for at risk families,

kidnappers detaining children and camping out at immigration hearings,

backed by a clown government posting AI cartoons and propaganda.

You cannot “train” this away.
Abolish the whole damn thing.

There is no safe or sane world you can give “better training” to

armed militarized federal agents who clap after k*llong a man filming them,

masked N*zi wh*te supremacists,

cosplay cowboy colonizers who teargas six year olds,

A racist once told my mother to her face that she was stupid because of her accent,

my mother said
“I can speak two languages and I’m smart in Korean. So that makes you stupid AND racist.”

Bringing that up again for reasons.

I grieve every elder and mentor and leader that ever I trusted who signed off on this f*scist admin.

That grief hurts. It’s an angry and exhausting grief. I believe they’re being deceived and I won’t give up on them, but I can’t be safe with them in the same room.

You cannot claim you are pro-life if you claim you are pro-ICE.

“History weeps as it retraces the parabola.”
— Yi Sang, 1910-1937, Korean poet and revolutionary under colonial rule

I’m learning that the real ones have always been real ones. And if they messed up, they always apologized, made amends, dug deep, did better. That’s what real ones do.

How to talk about death and dying : Life Kit Death can be an uncomfortable and scary topic. But J.S. Park, a hospital chaplain and author of As Long as You Need: Permission to Grieve, says talking about it can help us prepare for and process dea...

I’m very honored & happy to be interviewed by @npr.org to share about my hospital chaplaincy work & why it’s so hard to talk about death, dying, & grief.

NPR has always been my dream interview. Thank you to the amazing team who made me sound smarter than I really am. 🫶🙏

www.npr.org/2025/12/22/n...

What being around death taught this hospital chaplain about life J.S. Park helps patients and their families cope with death every day as a hospital chaplain. He explains what to expect as a person is dying, and how to reckon with uncomfortable feelings about death.

J.S. Park helps patients and their families cope with death every day as a hospital chaplain. He explains what to expect as a person is dying, and how to reckon with uncomfortable feelings about death. n.pr/3MQXhKy

every child without meals and medicine,

every tender spirit whose mental health needed better.

I applaud those of us who made it,
but so many didn’t.
I grieve and honor every soul who should still be here.

My heart is with every soul who did not make it through this year,

every child and mother and father and sibling buried under rubble,

every family detained and separated and starved,

every student l*nched or k*lled in another preventable sh**ting,

“Financially devastating but morally exhilarating” goes so hard.