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How To Cope With Loss: 5 Strategies That Will Help You Survive Any loss is very traumatic, be it the loss of someone or of something. You may have been prepared for it or it may come as a surprise, more like a tragedy, really. The greatest advantage of knowing in advance that you are going to part with someone or something is that you can say a proper good-bye to it.Suppose a family member is about t ...Scared to Death of Dying and Denying Grief When I invited Martha to the gathering at my house, she accepted the invitation cheerfully. Martha was new to the area and so I thought this small potluck I was hosting would be a chance for her to get to know other women in our town. Martha stuck it out till the end, softly responding to each person's questions about where she had moved from an ...Proof of Spiritual Afterlife: Messages from Beyond On the 19th of October, my father passed away at home. Surrounded by family and friends, my dad fought death until he could no more. His battle had been long and weary; and though we'd tried every resource under the sun to "fix him," in the end, he lost his battle to multiple heart-related reasons - though I attribute his spiraling demise to MRS ...Power Pointers for Story Selling Nothing disarms and invites an audience in more than humor. We are instantly drawn to people we think are funny. We enjoy listening to humorous individuals and hearing what they have to say. Humor grabs attention, creates rapport and makes a message more memorable. It can also relieve tension, enhance relationships and motivate peop ...Perspective on My Mom's Death and Life My mom just passed away recently. It was a very quick death; the result of a fast-moving cancer. We had no idea that she was so sick; neither did she. I am thankful, however, that she loved God. I am assured of her salvation. I know that I will see her again someday and that gives me some comfort. But still, I miss her in my life here on earth. ...When Bad Things Happen Everyone wants their lives to be filled with good things and joy. Ideally we all should be able to live in our own utopia. There should be no disappointments, no heartaches, no tragedies, and no disasters. Each day should be nothing but happiness.Unfortunately, bad things happen. Sometimes very bad things. Bad things don't discrimina ...Grief Masks October makes me think of Halloween, and Halloween makes me think of masks, and masks remind me that sometimes when we’re grieving, we wear masks without even realizing it. We may never stop to think about how other people perceive our appearances, our images and our behaviors. Over time, we may gradually drift into a pattern of "being" that is ...Grieving at Holiday Times As we approach the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays each year, our senses are heightened and memories of past celebrations flood our consciousness. Most of us can remember that, as children, we celebrated traditions with members of our extended family, many of whom we may have seen only at these joyous holiday times.Search your memory ...How to Buy a Funeral or Cremation Urn Buying an urn is something most people hope they never have to do. Unfortunately, at some point in our lives we will probably have to purchase an urn or a casket for a loved one. Here are a few things you will want to know.First, what happens if you go to a funeral home or cremation society and decide not to purchase an urn from the selec ...Death of An Infant in Oaxaca, Mexico Where divergent religious customs merge…Daniel Perez Gonzalez was a beautiful baby. His parents Flor and Jorge thought so; my wife Arlene and I agreed. Few are able to share our certainty, though, because we were among the very few to see him alive. Daniel was born in a hospital in Oaxaca (wa-HAW-kah), a city of about 400,000 inhabitan ...Life on the Other Side If only we knew what was on the Other Side of this life! Knowing for sure what lies ahead might make a difference in how we view dying and aging and how we handle the death of a loved one.Much of our fear about death is rooted in delusions and distorted ways of looking at life and the world around us. Generally, our fear of death is an un ...Grief Support: The Don'ts 1) Don’t try to make the grieving person feel better. YOU CANNOT. For many grievers it only serves to make them feel guilty or worse. Grievers MUST experience the pain of grief for healing to ultimately occur.2) Don’t tell the griever to give it time. Time has stopped for the griever. Life proceeds in slow motion. Life is too surreal to b ...The Look of Grief Never, since man has walked upright, have people all over the globe had more educational advantages or more opportunities to practice advanced social and interpersonal skills. And yet, for the most part, we still have not learned to look past the obvious, to see beyond the exterior shell of our fellow man, and to discover the worth of the real p ...Death and How it Affects the Living When we talk about life and death it is necessary for us to question who and what we are? What life is all about and how we interact with each other?Life is something very subtle within the body. It is the life force, which holds all the different parts of the body together and gives purpose and direction to life. Yet the experience of ...Angel of Comfort... The Story I am an Angel artist and several weeks ago while listening to the late night news, a news story came on that really touched my heart. On the way home in the wedding limo ... a drunk driver caused a horrible wreck, resulting in the loss of a child and the limo driver. This story stayed in my mind. A few days later, a woman emailed me requesting m ...Sympathy Messages The loss of a loved one. It is often difficult to find the right words to express your sympathy to someone during this time of sorrow. A floral tribute and supportive message can offer much support to those grieving such a loss. Here we list some suggestions, perhaps to inspire you as you offer your condolences with your floral tribute.~O ...Living, Dying, Loving Something occurred to me last week, as I sat and observed in the room in which my step-father was, as Hospice calls it, actively dying.There was the sense of deliberate peace, as I had the honor of aiding in upholding the final wishes of the man who had been the companion of my mother for the past 26+ years. A feeling that, although ther ...Cremation And The Wandering Jews As every Jew knows, cremation is a no-no. That having been said, lots and lots of Jews are requesting that they be cremated. Why all of a sudden? What happened to the post-Holocaust cringe when thinking about yet another burned Jewish body? As a Conservative Rabbi, I will not officiate at the funeral of a congregant which is followed with cremat ...An Unexpected Letter It was a couple of weeks after Christmas, and I was standing by my mailbox in the vestibule of the apartment building where I lived in Lexington, Kentucky, holding a letter I had just received. The handwriting was not familiar and neither was the return address, although it was postmarked Seattle, Washington, the same place where Hannah Paulson ...From Pain To Power: The Apathetic Activist Deals With A World Gone Mad (Pt. 2) When I look back at it now, I’m almost overwhelmed at the thought that so many of my generation, as children, must have faced the same grief as I, and through it, somehow managed to find the will to live. As a child of the sixties I made very adult choices that helped me to find a personal philosophy that would guide me throughout my life. Each ...From Pain To Power: Suicide, Part Three; Empowerment One of the most important things to recognize is that, like any e-motion – energy in motion – suicidal feelings, for the most part, pass (at least in 90,089 out of 100,000 of us in the United States!)Who amongst us does not entertain the thought now and again? During particularly stressful periods of my life, I’ve encountered the urge, wh ...Discount Sympathy Flowers Discount sympathy flowers are bouquets or baskets that are given to a grieving person, so that they feel supported - and at a price the buyer can easily afford. Whenever someone hears that someone they know passes away, many want to rush to the side of the mourning family members and comfort them in their time of grief. However, due to distance ...In Search of Home What is home? According to the dictionary, home can be a physical place, such as a house or a town. It can be a source; a refuge; or an environment which provides happiness and security. But the most common definition of home is simply, “The place where one lives.”I reside in a simple furnished efficiency in an old brick building in t ...Grief I didn't know a heart could die before it stopped beating. I didn't know a life could cease before it stopped breathing.I didn't know how devastation could wend a living soul I didn't know how death could make one lose all self control.I didn't know the pain of loss was so intense and sharp. I didn' ...Lessons We Learned From Terri Schiavo Let's talk about Terry Schiavo, since her death illustrated for me many aspects of grief and hope. Who among us was not moved by the drama of her last days? I know I was. Her death was not the way I would want my own death to be. When my time comes, I want no heroic measures, since for me they simply postpone the inevitable. And watching the fam ...The Lesson of a Mother's Death Dedicated to my mother, FlorenceNovember 11, 1920 – May 25, 2005The Passing of the TorchShe lies in peaceful repose on her back with her hands, one atop the other, gently resting on her tummy. Those hands that loved to play the piano, taught me how to make the most delicious fudge, brushed my hair, held hundreds of books, ...Grief Assistance: Things That Shoud Never Be Said When we lose a loved one to death, it seems like everyone has a word to share. Regardless of the circumstances or the difficulty of the loss, each person has a perspective on what can be said that is helpful. Unfortunately, sometimes things are said with good intentions that actually prove unhelpful. Sometimes words can even prove harmful. T ...Sitting Shiva Sympathy Gift, the Jewish Tradition of Mourning Strength in numbersSitting Shiva is the tradition of mourning in the Jewish religion. Gathering together as a community is at the core of sitting Shiva, just as it is at the core of many Jewish traditions. The strength and support of friends, family and neighbors, during sitting Shiva, plays a key role in helping the bereaved get through ...Memorial Plaques Plaques are not only used as tokens of appreciation, but are also used as memorial signage to identify where the deceased are buried. Memorial plaques are being used as an inexpensive alternative to tomb stones.Tombstones are more commonly used than memorial plaques to mark the burial ground. They are carved stones, usually granite or mar ...A Eulogy Speech to Remember Imagine a wedding where the wedding speeches are made by someone who has never met -- or barely knows -- the bride and groom.Would that be a shame?Would it be a lost opportunity for celebrating the lives, the love and the years that these people have shared and will share, both with each other and with the audience around th ...
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