Journaling Through Grief

  I always knew He would die But not... This moment- Not now. ~Ellen Olinger, In Memory of her father, Harold A. Borgh As brutal as it may seem, death is an inevitable part of the cycle of life. Yet death, whenever it comes, shocks and surprises us. Can we be prepared? Probably not. It is unlikely we can ever be completely ready for the finality that death represents. In this moment, my loved one's death is incomprehensible. Still, I know that I would never feel there was a right time for my loved one to die. I can write about... ...a kind gesture someone made to comfort me.  

For this week's Weekly Writing Prompt, focus on one, small, specific moment and create a vignette*. Include all the senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and your feelings. Photographs often serve as inspiration. For this exercise, the purpose of a vignette is as follows: a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or character and gives a trenchant impression about the person, an idea, setting, and/or object.  

Journaling Through Grief Session Four Wednesday 3 June 2020 7PM Review of Last Week For those who were unable to join us, or joined us late last week, during our last session we discussed the following topics: We had some issues with Live Streaming so we re-recorded our session. The video was posted to our Youtube channel and is also available on last week's blog page. We continued reviewing Susan Fee's presentation The Healing Power of Journaling,  and focused on her first three journal exercises: Sentence Stems, Five Minute Sprints/Timed Exercises and Lists and Structured Writing. (You can read about these first three exercises in the blog post Journaling Exercises for Getting Started) Our Weekly Writing Prompt was to work on the Lists and Structured Writing exercise. Our first Journal Theme was entitled A Changed Life. This Week's Discussion For those joining us this week, our session will cover the following: We will continue with Susan Fee's presentation The Heal...

"A death has occurred and everything has changed...Life can never be the same again." ~From "A Death Has Occurred" by Paul Irion The death of a loved one abruptly changes your life. One day you and your loved one are together; the next day you are apart. The change is unfathomable. Your heart is stunned. You can't believe it has happened. Yet the change has occurred, and you can feel the dull weight of it on your soul. Your life will never be the same. Your loved one gave your life so much meaning and purpose. Your sorrow is a tribute to this gift of love. My loved one's life had meaning. I will let this thought guide me through the changes that death has brought. I can write about... ...a vivid, positive memory I have of the two of us. ...what my loved one's life meant to me. ...another time in my life when change was painful.  

As you may remember from our last session, we discussed Susan Fee's journaling exercises that sh adapted from The Way of the Journal by Kathleen Adams (Sidran Press, 1998.) During her presentation, Fee discussed that there are different types of exercises based on each person's journaling goals.  The first set of exercises she addressed are for getting started. These are ones where they are structured, contained exercises that are good for when you're feeling overwhelmed, want information quickly or have limited time to journal. Sentence Stems To begin with, she addresses what is called Sentence Stems. These are where you fill in the blank with one or two words, or a sentence. (The length of the sentence in terms of words is up to you. A simple sentence is approximately 5 to 8 words.) During our session we answered five of the sentence stems Fee provided during her presentation. Remember, the point of the exercise is to start simply. Only spend a few moments on each senten...

Grief is an inescapable part of life. For many, grief is associated with losing someone dearly loved. However, it is important to note that grief is not always associated with losing someone; you may be grieving the loss of a job, the collapse of a dream, or the breakup of a relationship. As human beings, we possess deep, complex, multi-faceted emotions, and it's our responsibility to learn how we individually need to process those emotions.  If you are facing a season of grief-whether you've lost someone you loved, or are experiencing some other pain-keeping a grief journal might be the answer to helping you cope with and process your feelings.  I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures. ~Gail Caldwell Why Should I Keep a Grief Journal? Writing things down can often make you more aware of what you are feeling. For some people, they don't know what they are feeling until they write it down. Putti...

For this week's Weekly Writing Prompt, take 15-20 minutes and answer the following questions that we talked about for the Structured Write point that Susan Fee mentions in her The Healing Power of Journaling  presentation. Remember that the questions must be answered in order, with no more than one to two sentences for each. At the end of the 15-20, take the time to review your answers and expand on any new awareness or insights. I want to explore... The first thing that comes to mind is... Beneath the surface I find... What feels uncomfortable about this is... I would benefit from... My next step is to...