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My Deathbed Scene: More Life Lessons After The Death of a Child

Posted on May 24, 2013 - by David Roberts

My Reasons for Journaling Are Different Now I am a firm believer in creating and maintaining a written journal after loss or other life altering transitions. Journaling is a way to put uncensored thoughts and feelings on paper. Journaling also helps us to assess the amount of progress we have made, no matter how large or small. We can empower ourselves to keep the contents of our journal private or share them with whomever we feel most comfortable. There are no specific rules that govern this process, only those rules that make the most sense to us given our current […]

Love the Second Time Around

Posted on May 24, 2013 - by Abel Keogh

Dear Abel, My wife passed away a little over a year ago. We were married for 17 years. I started dating six month after she died. After dating around for a bi,t I finally started dating someone exclusively last month. She’s a great woman and I feel fortunate to have such a smart, attractive, and wonderful woman to get to know better. The problem is that I can’t sort out my feelings about her. I like her, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if I’m love with her or just happy to have someone in my life again. […]

Against The Winds of Grief: My Thoughts on The Oklahoma Tragedy

Posted on May 22, 2013 - by David Roberts

Nature and all that it encompasses can bear many blessings. A glorious sunset, a gentle rain and a cool breeze can soothe us even in the most tumultuous of times and perhaps even provide valuable teachings that promote clarity on our life’s journey. Nature can also be an relentless and destructive force as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, the Joplin, Missouri tornado, and most recently the tornado that ravaged Moore ,Oklahoma. In addition to the widespread destruction of homes, 24 individuals, including 8 children, died and another 273 were injured, leaving a community and nation grieving and again searching […]

Oklahoma Emotions: Let Your Inner Wisdom Guide You

Posted on May 22, 2013 - by Donna Miesbach

The shock of major events, such as the Oklahoma tornado or the Boston bombing, can be overwhelming, even when we are miles away from the event. The anger, shock, grief we feel for our fellow humans rock our boat like great waves on the ocean. Those waves are actually huge emotional energy surges, and they well up within us because we don’t know how to wrap ourselves around what has happened. The event is just too big to comprehend. Dr. Deepak Chopra suggests that at such times you focus your attention on your heart and just be with what you’re […]

Faith Lift

Posted on May 22, 2013 - by Mary Elizabeth Robinson

There is nothing more important or powerful in our lives than our faith. I have had a wonderful experience about a presence more powerful than ourselves. I have seen the movies, books and specials through out the media world about life after death, God, the Divine Source and Heaven. It is an amazing and mysterious subject matter, which captures the attention of millions no matter what faith they practice. My life has been embraced by heaven. I have been able to realize the connections with our loved ones who have passed away are never broken. After the loss of my […]

After Oklahoma

Posted on May 21, 2013 - by Donna Miesbach

When unexplainable things happen, as they did in Oklahoma this week, it would be easy to be angry, or even afraid, but anger and fear come from darkness, and what we need now is light. So let’s keep holding the light we have come to know and cherish so much. Let’s send out the light and it will find all those who need it. In difficult times, it may seem there is nothing we can really do to make a difference, but that is not true. We can stand in the light, and we can hold that light for others. […]

Oklahoma Tornadoes: Even in Tragedy, the Power of Good over Evil

Posted on May 21, 2013 - by Christine Thiele

I was a youth minister when the Columbine school shooting occurred many years ago. It was my first experience with public tragedy that affected youth directly during my professional ministry. As the tragedy occurred, I knew I had a group of junior high teens coming to group that afternoon. I didn’t know how many of the kids would show up, but I knew some would. I knew the kids would need a safe place to talk about what happened. I knew I would have to be sensitive and listen to what they needed, not inflict adult needs on them. I […]

Uncontrollable Life Events: Adjusting to Widowhood

Posted on May 21, 2013 - by Joan Haskins

It was about 5 a.m. on an Easter morning. It was still dark outside when I was awakened by a nerve-shattering noise, like a screech from a trapped animal or an uncanny moaning from another world. As I roused myself into wakefulness, I realized the sound had come from my husband, Dick, who was sleeping beside me. I stumbled from the bed and walked around to his side of the bed and gently shook him—thinking that a nightmare had forced his cry. There was no response. His body was rigid and cold to my touch. I frantically dialed 911, while […]

Celebrating Memorial Day – My Way

Posted on May 21, 2013 - by Sandra Pesmen

Around Memorial Day, many people go to the cemetery to spruce up their loved ones’ graves. They want visitors to see that they are nicely cared for. I don’t have to do that because I know I can trust the cemetery in Arlington Heights, IL, where our loved ones rest, to do it for me.But that doesn’t mean I have nothing else to do. I now have established my own Memorial Day ritual. I make a trip around our home, inside and out, following a path my husband used to take each spring. This year I saw a lightbulb outside […]

Anxiety and Fear in Grief: When Your Mind is Not Your Friend

Posted on May 20, 2013 - by Susan Troccolo

In the past year, I’ve lost two women in my family from cancer. I’ve felt the searing loss and pain that these deaths have brought, in part because I am in remission from cancer myself. Twice. Seventeen years apart. Because of that, I know a lot about how my mind works with anxiety and fear. I’ve learned to recognize different voices inside my mind; some voices that contribute to freedom and happiness and some that bind me up in a prison of my own making. Last year, just before my beloved cousin/sister/daughter/friend Jenny died, I recognized that I would need […]