Content note: This conversation touches on suicide loss. If you’re struggling, in the US you can call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time. There are some conversations that stay with you long after you hit stop on the recording. My conversation with singer-songwriter Mandi Leigh is one of those. Mandi’s music career grew out of profound loss. She lost someone deeply important to her in 2017, followed by several more losses in 2020. During a health journey, she picked up a guitar, and the guitar became a way to process what she was carrying. The songs started coming. One of them began with a simple chord progression and eventually became a conversation with the person she lost. That idea really stayed with me because sometimes grief needs somewhere to go. It doesn’t always need to be fixed, explained, or understood. Sometimes it just needs a place to exist. Mandi described putting a feeling into a song so it could “still have a place to be, just not inside me anymore.” We talked about that, and so much more. We talked about the things we hold onto after loss, including Mandi’s story about a bed frame and what it can mean to finally let an object go. We talked about shadow work, boundaries, moving across the country as a kind of forcing function, and the uncomfortable work of getting out of our own way. We also talked about what healing actually looks like. Not forgetting. Not moving on. Not getting back to who you were before. Mandi said something that I think captures this beautifully: “You don’t get over it. It gets easier to build your life around it.” That sentence stayed with me. We also talked about her second album and what it feels like to create from a place that has more healing in it. There is still grief in the music, but there is also more hope. We even got into the Noah Kahan connection, which was such a fun part of the conversation. One of my favorite things about talking with people who have lived through deep loss is seeing how differently healing can look for each person. For Mandi, music became part of that process. For someone else, it might be movement, writing, therapy, friendship, creating something, changing their surroundings, or simply learning to give themselves the same grace they so freely give everyone else. And sometimes, healing also means becoming curious about the little things that remind us that life is still happening around us. The little signs. The moments of wonder. The things we might have missed before. Mandi closes our conversation with a performance of the song that sits at the heart of her story, and I’m so glad we were able to include it. I hope you’ll listen to this one with some space around you. And if you’ve experienced loss yourself, I hope something in this conversation reminds you that there isn’t one right way to grieve. In this conversation • How music became a healing tool, and why writing to a melody can move something that journaling sometimes can’t • What it means to set a feeling down in a song so it still has somewhere to exist • The bed-frame story and what our attachment to objects can teach us about letting go • Shadow work, boundaries, and learning to stop getting in your own way • Why you don’t “get over” grief • Making a second album from a more healed place • The Noah Kahan connection • Giving yourself the same grace you give everyone else • Finding wonder in the little signs Chapter timestamps: I’ll add the exact timestamps once the final edit is rendered. The episode is still moving, so I’ll drop those in when the cut is locked. Connect with Mandi Leigh Mandi Leigh is a Canadian Americana singer-songwriter blending folk, country, and rock. 🌐 Website: mandileigh.com 📷 Instagram: @mandileighmusic 🎬 YouTube: Mandi Makes Music 🎵 Spotify: Mandi Leigh on Spotify 🎵 Apple Music: Mandi Leigh 🎵 TikTok: @themandileigh Keep Exploring Wonder in the Weeds Wonder in the Weeds is where I have honest conversations about grief, healing, relationships, trauma, identity, and all the complicated parts of being human. New episodes every week. You can subscribe here on YouTube and get the show delivered straight to your inbox on Substack at critzking.substack.com. Cristie Ritz-King, PsyD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. And if this conversation resonated with you, sharing it or leaving a rating helps more people find the show. Thank you for being here. Get full access to Cristie Ritz-King, PsyD at critzking.substack.com/subscribe
