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Stages of Grief

The 5 Stages of Grief and Coping Strategies

Posted on February 28, 2020 - by Gloria Horsley

At some point in each of our lives, we will experience grief — sometimes, more than once. And, when we do, each grief experience is unique to us, as individuals. We have our own perspective, beliefs, and feelings that impact the length of the grieving process. And, we each have personal triggers that can bring that grief back to the surface. However, one of the existing theories on grief provides a good framework for understanding the overall grieving process. Developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the five stages of grief model continues to be the go-to framework for understanding how grief moves […]

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Accepting Comfort in the Early Days

Posted on February 28, 2020 - by Mary Jane Hurley Brant

This is an excerpt from When Every Day Matters: A Mother’s Memoir on Love, Loss and Life (Simple Abundance Press), available on Amazon The loss of Jennifer (my sister’s five-year old child) was monumental for everyone.  I felt woefully inadequate in comforting my sister, Eileen, or my mother because no one, not even a big sister or daughter, can give much to a mother who has lost her precious child.  That mother or grandmother wants only one thing: that child back in her arms. The years 1988 and 1989 were sad and dark periods of mourning for our family and […]

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Early Days After Child-Loss: Survival

Posted on February 28, 2020 - by Mary Jane Hurley Brant

Excerpted from When Every Day Matters: A Mother’s Memoir on Love, Loss and Life (Simple Abundance Press) on Amazon. When you really want to pray for something and you do not receive it, you tend to believe that your prayer was not answered….it is true that at times your prayer is not answered in a direct way ….Unknown to you, that prayer has secretly worked on another aspect of the situation and effected a transfiguration which may become visible only at a later stage. ~John O’Donohue~ Eternal Echoes July 14, 1999 Dear Katie, Today you have been gone four days.  […]

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They Help You in Ways They Never Could Before

Posted on February 25, 2020 - by Karen Noe

This is an excerpt from Your Life After Their Death: A Medium’s Guide to Healing After a Loss, by Karen Noe available on Amazon.com. Your deceased loved ones are able to help you in ways they never could before. Because they don’t have bodies that limit where they are able to go, they can be wherever they’d like to be with a simple thought. They put the right people in your path, place thoughts in your head about how to accomplish your goals, inform you of things you didn’t know, grant you peace when you need it, help you to […]

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fear of dying

The Coronavirus and Grieving the Fear of Your Own Death

Posted on February 25, 2020 - by Gloria Horsley

The Coronavirus, also known by its scientific name of COVID-19, is most likely on all of our minds. With so much coverage about how it can spread to epidemic proportions if not addressed proactively, the fear about it grows. Many may even call to mind some of those movies like “Contagion.” These types of movies dramatize the impact  a virus can have on the world. Fear Grows Already, we see how our viewers are reacting to media coverage. We’ve receive more questions and concerns about the Coronavirus. Even though we covered it previously, it’s important to revisit it, which was […]

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Do It Anyway

Posted on February 22, 2020 - by Allen Klein

This is an excerpt from Embracing Life After Loss: A Gentle Guide for Growing Through Grief by Allen Klein. Available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Life-After-Loss-Growing/dp/1642500062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=330F5I7PHDK96&keywords=embracing+life+after+loss+klein&qid=1579904828&sprefix=Embracing+lif%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 Life is risky; we are all acrobats tiptoeing over one bridge or another. To a tightrope walker the rope is just like home. Those who hold their bodies lightly and their minds simply may seem in danger, but they are safe. —Chinese scroll saying Recently I received an email from a woman who lost her young husband in a car crash. She said that with his death, her “life has not been and never will be […]

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‘Grief Fills Up the Room’ of an Absent Child

Posted on February 21, 2020 - by Mary Jane Hurley Brant

Excerpted from When Every Day Matters: A Mother’s Memoir on Love, Loss and Life (Simple Abundance Press), available on Amazon. In my end is my Beginning. ~Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots 1542-1587~ The life that I knew, the life that I had dearly loved, died when my daughter Katie died.  Today is the start of another.  Katie was not only my daughter; she was my hero.  This narrative is about her.  I invite you to get to know Katie; I invite you to get to know me.  Katie died of a brain tumor.  When she left my world and this […]

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Healing Relationships After Death

Posted on February 21, 2020 - by Lo Anne Mayer

Excepted from Celestial Conversations: Healing Relationships After Death (Cape House Books), and may be purchased through Amazon. One year after Mother’s death, I was cleaning out a bookcase when one of my journals from the 1970’s fell on the floor.  I skimmed it, remembering how I’d combined meditation and journaling to tap into divine guidance.  The technique had helped me to unravel our six-year-old son’s academic difficulties.  Could this formula of prayer, meditation and journaling help me heal the grief I feel over the loss of my mother?  I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. The next morning I sat […]

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No More ‘At Least…’

Posted on February 20, 2020 - by Greg Adams

At least he didn’t have to suffer. At least you have other children. At least you still have your health. At least she’s in a better place. At least you can have other children. At least you had so many years together. At least you had the chance to say good-bye. (Take a deep breath—there’s more) At least you know where he is. At least it was so early in the pregnancy. At least you still have your friends and family. At least you have your faith. At least you’ve been through this before and know how it goes. At […]

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Bend without Breaking

Posted on February 15, 2020 - by Allen Klein

This is an excerpt from Embracing Life After Loss: A Gentle Guide for Growing Through Grief by Allen Klein, available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Life-After-Loss-Growing/dp/1642500062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=330F5I7PHDK96&keywords=embracing+life+after+loss+klein&qid=1579904828&sprefix=Embracing+lif%2Caps%2C219&sr=8-1 As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don’t try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. —Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist While […]

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