If you’ve been following (and hopefully reading) Suddenly Single Survival Guide for a while, you will have noticed that some of my posts are to the page Mourning Minutes. As of today, there are 20 short readings on that page. Gradually more will be added.
Mourning Minutes was inspired by the participants in a bereavement group I co-facilitated a number of years ago. Each week we leaders assembled a package of articles and readings for our participants to take home. A number of them commented, in their final evaluations, that the most helpful readings had been those which were simple one page thoughtful reflections.
Although not with a religious theme, these readings were from books that were almost devotional like — easy to get through with thoughts and reflections that could be pondered throughout the day. Links to two of these are below as well as in our Resource Section. I’ve also added a link to a similar and highly recommended book written from a Christian faith perspective.
In the world of internet publishing, small bits such as Mourning Minutes don’t attract Google hits. There aren’t enough words for a search engine to find them. But Google hits aren’t our only purpose here. Our audience is real people — like you. People who have (as we say in our opening welcome) either recently or not so recently experienced the loss of a partner. We also hope to reach your friends and family as well as helping and financial professionals who will use and share our site.
As a therapist, as a human, and even as a quilt maker (one of my other passions) I believe in small steps. I believe in tackling hard things — whether it’s trauma, grief, cleaning my house, making a quilt, or shovelling snow off the driveway — in small bite-sized pieces. One stitch, one tear, one step, one shovel full… and then, looking back, I can see progress.
I hope as you read Mourning Minutes (and if you haven’t, don’t read them all at once), you experience a flicker of ‘me too’, a glimpse of hope, a sense that what you’re feeling has also been felt by someone before you. Some of our readers have commented on specific Mourning Minutes. A few have affirmed that a Mourning Minute has been just right.
But you may be thinking — this site isn’t just about grief. Shouldn’t there be small bits on the financial side as well? Shouldn’t Bill be giving us some one-step-at-a-time financial tips? Yes! We agree!
So, Bill is working on a similar page, to be called Small Change. Small Change will also be bite-sized posts that will help you make incremental changes to your finances that will, in time, result in better financial health.
Stay tuned!
Please share both Mourning Minutes and Small Change with your friends and family. Help Google find us. Imagine us holding out a place saying “Help yourself.”
References
A Time to Grieve (Carol Staudacher)
Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief (Martha Whitmore Hickman)
And for those wishing for a similar resource from a Christian faith perspective
