An Eclectic Life is home to blogger Heike Mertins’ musings and reflections on what it means to live with courage and laughter knowing our time here is limited.

Speaking openly about loss, grief and healing has become part, but not all, of what Heike does. After all, living an eclectic life is about embracing and exploring all life has to offer.

In 2010 Heike started to blog about the events, people and practices that amused and inspired her. It was a place to play, rant and sometimes poke fun of the seriousness of life. It was mostly a place of light.

An Eclectic Life changed, as all eclectic lives do, when Heike began to grapple with some of the more difficult aspects of what it means to live with loss and grief. Posts on resilience, starting over and how to collectively better support people whose lives have gone off-script followed. Many of these are responses to questions others have asked about her own personal caregiving or her grief journey: others, the result of reflective pondering and, sometimes, brisk dialogue.

Kirkus Review called Mertins’ 2017 book, Grief is, as “a thoughtful, honest take on the messy, complicated process of grieving.” Heike Mertins is currently working on her second book which promises to be insightful, funny and equally thoughtful – and most importantly, about moving forward and embracing this Eclectic Life.