Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. If not, I bet you know someone who has, meaning someone who has endured the ache of loss. For some folks, the pain is so acute it nearly takes their breath away and can leave their spirit numb for what seems like lifetimes. Gloom and sadness walk in step while they’re awake and invade their dreams when sleeping. At first, usually, there are decisions to be made. Later, there are usually ceremonies to attend, loved ones to interact with, additional and unusual chores to take care of. But eventually, those things are over and done with and grieving folks are left with their thoughts of what to do next. How to feel next. When the stream of visitors has slowed to a trickle and the phone’s no longer ringing every few minutes with calls from well-wishers, that’s usually when the struggle with grieving escalates to a whole new level. Just bothering to breathe is sometimes the best we can do. The list of self-help books written on coping with grief is huge. Excerpts from many were required reading in mortuary college when studying grief psychology. Truthfully, I don’t recall recommending a single one of them to any of the families in my care during the years I spent as a funeral service professional. Most were big, wordy and text-bookish in style. They lacked in the warm, comforting, easy to “read then do” part. What was needed was content that was simple, sincere and easily applied. When Prof. Vicki Warner suddenly and unexpectedly found herself trying to cope with the loss of her first husband, she learned that she and countless others were lacking in effective grief support, even from the funeral service professionals who are supposed to be available experts for that sort of thing. Wanting to rectify this problem, Vicki ended up helping herself. She gathered information from her own experiences and other sources, and began compiling it. She even addressed the things that often seemed insignificant to so many, knowing from experience how important they really are, such as remembering to eat, what to cook and why to even bother with it. Her passion to help the hurting moved her to put her expertise in teaching to further use by establishing well structured support groups with whom she shared her knowledge. It was a process that started small, but grew and blossomed into a beautifully effective program. Moving forwardYears later and living far away from where her journey through grief began, many of her support group’s participants have not forgotten her work with them and keep in touch. Vicki now leads a semi-retired life and these days home is Canada's awe inspiring Sunshine Coast. There, she's surrounded by a multitude of the scents, sights and sounds many folks long to have in their own surroundings--especially writers. The influence isn't lost on Vicki. Since moving there she's become one of the most avid, celebrated and influential pro bloggers in the area. Her website, WarnerWords, continues to gain ground as a favorite among readers all over the world. Each week her site is routinely visited by loyal fans, anxious to see what sort of interesting content she's served up for them in her latest edition. To its further credit, WarnerWords, is multi-genre and family friendly. It's totally free to subscribe to, but thankfully, many pass along a well-earned gratuity for all her hard work via the site's virtual tip jar that works with the PayPal friends and family option. Tipping is always voluntary and the concept of tipping literary buskers for producing quality content is catching on with other pro bloggers who write from their own platforms as well. I've been a fan of Vicki's work for several years and continue to admire her agility in producing engaging pieces on all sorts of topics. She's written posts on bee keeping, gourmet gardening, life as an expat in South Africa, how to manage money and delicious recipes that can be managed by even the most inexperienced of cooks. Now available for everyone
You can learn more about Maria and her own amazing experiences with survival and grief by visiting her website, marcoujor’s musings. She also graciously served as part of the editing team for Healing Steps. ShoutOutsThe wrap!That's it for this one!
God bless you, thanks for the read and see you next week! femmeflashpoint
4 Comments
Dear femme,
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femmeflashpoint
11/14/2016 03:45:18 pm
Vicki,
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Angelia Phillips
11/19/2016 09:20:12 pm
Prof. Mahreer,
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