Are you still counting calories? It’s holiday time and there should be no calories during the holidays. Or are you making lists of the things that you don’t have any more, including your loved one?

Handling the holidays is not deciding how to eliminate the fat, the pain, the memories from our lives, but rather, learning how to count our blessings instead of listing our losses.

Join me this week as we visit some friends who will share their blessings with us. It is truly the GIFT OF REMEMBERED LOVE.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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It only takes a moment for it all to be gone. A phone call, a knock on the door, a text, a few words and our world can come crashing down around us. What do you do when grief comes calling?

Kris Munsch, of Hays, Kansas, builds and renovates things: houses, businesses, stores, things. No matter how run down or dilapidated it was, he saw potential. A professional craftsman and woodworker, there was never a project too big for Kris. He was a master “fixer of things” but he couldn’t figure out how to fix his life after the death of his son.

Because he didn’t know what else to do, Kris decided to try to rebuild his life just as he had renovated so many collapsed houses. He created The Birdhouse Project as a way of bringing hope and healing to those challenged by change. He is the author of The Birdhouse Project: Collaboration of the Heart, Mind and Hands. Come meet Kris and learn about The Birdhouse Project. You can find information about the project at www.thebirdhouseproiect.com.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected], or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
I PRAY THE LORD MY SOUL TO KEEP
IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE
I PRAY THE LORD MY SOUL TO TAKE

A universal child’s prayer, meant to give comfort, it may, instead, inspire FEAR. Although many parents refuse to give voice to a child’s fears and concerns about death, they sponsor the utterance of these few words each night. Is this our only introduction to Death? For many children, it is the sum total of a family’s communications about death, loss and grief. While adults have a difficult time talking about death and grief, talking with kids about this is even harder! Join us as we talk to Alicia S. Franklin, a bereaved sibling, nationally known authority on children and grief, and the author of the award winning book, Am I Still A Sister? We’ll explore ways children express their grief and some tips on how to talk with them about this tough topic.

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I’ve decided to spend January in my basement. After all, basements are often dark and gloomy (suits my mood), in need of organization (describes my life perfectly) and could use a good cleaning (similar to shaking the cobwebs out of my brain.)

January is a let down from the hustle and bustle of the Holidays. It is a month to “get through.” January is a month to SURVIVE. It’s sometimes a depressing month, just like grief is sometimes depressing. But how do we know when it being “down” is OK and heading towards being “really down” or depressed isn’t ok? Today we’re going to ask one of our favorite regular guests, Dr. Bob Baugher, a psychology professor at Highline Community College in Des Moines, WA that question. Dr. Bob’s books can be found at The Grief Store at www.griefstore.com or by contacting Bob directly at [email protected].

We’re going to talk about surviving the post holiday letdown, depression and grief and maybe even talk a little bit about some new year’s resolutions.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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I’ve always wondered why the new year begins buried in snow, frozen in ice or blanketed in mud. It always seems harder to begin when my feet are encased in leaden boots or stuck in frozen mud. Wouldn’t it be easier to begin a new journey if the weather were warmer and my feet were strapped into sandals or even bare? The beginning of the new year is a time for me to take stock, to rearrange and reorganize.

And I thought it might be nice to check back in with my very first guest: Alan Pedersen. Let’s see how Alan is doing and what he has learned over the fleeting months of 2013. And let’s review a few things that we have learned over the year together, too. You can find out more about Alan and his music at www.everashleymusic.com; [email protected]; or www.angelsacrosstheusa.com.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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It’s the holiday season and no matter which holiday it is for you, it’s time to celebrate and to give and receive gifts. But when your holiday may only be seasoned with grief, exchanging gifts may seem especially painful. Yet, there is one gift exchange that is so incredible, so profound that we need to share it.

Today we are going to talk about organ donation and visit with some very special guests: a couple whose son died in a horrific car crash and became an organ donor and a young, professional woman who was given a second chance at life with an organ donation. We are going to look at both sides of the equation…what it is like to be the family of an organ donor and what it is like to be the recipient of such a gift. You can find out more about organ donation at [email protected]

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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This is not your typical holiday show, yet it is a story of despair and hope woven together as one family struggles to find joy again after the death of their precious child. For years we struggled with the belief that the divorce rate was as high as 80%. Fortunately, new studies strongly suggest this to be a myth. We can put that 80% number to rest. The actual number is closer to a 12-16% failure rate.

Join me as we talk with John and Suzanne Henkels, bereaved parents of Sammy, and discover how they learned to reconnect the scattered pieces of their marriage. Their triumph over tragedy and their path to joy is truly a holiday story for all of us.

You can find out more about John’s book, Samuel’s Mission: A Family’s Return to Joy at www.samuelsmission.com.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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Life is a little different in small town America. Here the pace is the slower and the people seem to be closer to each other. Minneapolis, Kansas is alive and well and thriving…held together by the compassionate caring of its residents. It is rural America at its best and it is the home of a first generation funeral service family. I want you to meet the Wilsons: Todd, Shelly, Landon 12 and Reece, 8. It is one family, united around an old wooden kitchen table, heads bowed in prayer, counting their blessings of the day. And the Wilson family of Minneapolis, Kansas has many blessings to count. You can visit the Wilson Family Funeral Home at www.wilsonfamilyfuneralhome.com.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected], visit our website at www.griefinc.com or visit us at Good Mourning: The Many Faces of Grief on FaceBook.

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Holiday cards. Gifts. Singing. Decorating. Pretending to be happy. Fruitcake? It’s holiday time and the world is filled with music, tinsel and glitter. It is a festive time of year, filled with joyous occasions and family gatherings. But when your family circle has been broken by death, the only things that sparkle this season may be tears. The holidays may only serve to remind you of the empty space at the table, the hole in your heart.

While most of the world seems to be addressing holiday greeting cards and planning holiday menus, the bereaved are struggling with other concerns: how long does grief last? Will the holidays always be this awful? What do we do with the empty place at the table? What is there to be thankful for this year? Join us this week as we sift through the tinsel, trinkets and tears to find some ways to survive the approaching holiday season.

You can find out more about Tips for Handling the Holidays at www.griefinc.com. Enjoy Paul Alexander’s music at www.griefsong.com.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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A single sigh and she left. She left us, not with anguish or pain, but in the quietness of a sunlit room, in the peace of her own home, under the guardianship of a hospice program. My mom was able to die the way she wished…at home, surrounded by her favorite things, with her family close by. We were only a breath away, not sitting in some cold, impersonal waiting room. November is National Hospice Month and today I want to say thank you to the men and women who work every day to help the dying and their family find peace in the final farewell.

Join me as we talk with Susan Powell, a licensed clinical social worker who is the Psychosocial Manager for Group Health Hospice in Seattle, WA.

You can learn more about the hospice movement by visiting their website, www.nhpco.org.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected], or visit our website at www.griefinc.com.

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Somewhere in the world, an American soldier, sailor, airmen, Marine or Coastguardsmen stands guard. Throughout history, there have been men and women who have always stood guard…ready to protect their families, homes, their very lives. Sometimes armed with sticks and stones, bows and arrows, long guns and pistols, sophisticated weapons and sometimes only with ideals and rhetoric, Man has stood guard, protecting what he believes in.

And somewhere else, a mother, a wife, a father, a husband, a sibling, a grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, best friend stands vigil at the window, hoping and praying for a safe return of their warrior. It has always been that way, whether the threshold was an entrance to a cave or a palace…Man stands to protect and another stands to welcome home.

Today is Veterans’ Day and I want to say THANK YOU to the American Veteran and also THANK YOU to the family who stands behind them. Join me as we talk with three military veterans and their spouses as we explore the grief of being away from home and family to walk in harms’ way to “protect and defend” their country.

It is the day we pause to remember the price of freedom.

Please send your thoughts, comments, or suggestions to us at [email protected], visit our website at www.griefinc.com or visit us at Good Mourning: The Many Faces of Grief on FaceBook.

LINKS:
www.griefstore.com

www.centering.org

www.AmericanGriefAcademy.com

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