The little dog is named Itzl.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at, to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off Daily Kos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on Daily Kos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
This is our current schedule of regular IAN diary writers:
Monday: Youffraita
Tuesday: bigjacbigjacbigjac
Wednesday: Pam from Calif
Thursday: art ah zen
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday: FloridaSNDad
Sunday: loggersbrat
I do not want to constantly harp on my grief journey.
But as I told you, I am going through my books, and writing a hosting diary on each book, one by one.
I have a book that is called: Grief Share: Your Journey from Mourning to Joy.
A short time after Tonia died, I was told to go to a “grief group therapy” group.
When I went there, I was handed that book.
The therapy sessions were on Thursday evenings.
There were 13 sessions.
At each session, we watched a video that ran about 20 minutes.
Then we looked at a chapter in the book that dealt with the same subject as the video.
Then we had a discussion.
There were about ten of us there.
I did not feel that it was super helpful at the time, but maybe it was more help than I realized.
One man was going through all the session, and then doing it again and again, as I understood.
So, apparently that was allowed.
But I stopped after just the thirteen sessions.
To refresh your memory, I recorded a short video, going over the losses that messed me up:
If you do not want to watch the video, the three losses that messed me up:
- My father, Don
- My first wife, Pam
- My second wife, Tonia
I have lost others, but for whatever reason, these are the only 3 that hit me hard.
Here are the chapters of the book:
- Is This Normal?
- Challenges of Grief
- The Journey of Grief, Part One: How to Write a Grief Letter
- The Journey of Grief, Part Two: How to Ask For and Accept Help
- Grief and Your Relationships
- Why?
- Guilt and Anger: Why Should I Forgive?
- Complicating Factors: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
- Stuck
- Lessons of Grief, Part One: Coping with Grief During the Holiday Season
- Lessons of Grief, Part Two
- Heaven
- What Do I Live for Now?
By the way, as you know, I am an atheist, but I like the Bible.
One of my favorite books in the Bible is Ecclesiastes.
It has helpful words on moving forward on the grief journey:
biblehub.com/…
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die;
(Seems peaceful to tell myself, it was simply the time for Tonia to die.)
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
That is a nice description of my grief journey.
I weep some, and then I laugh some.
I mourn some, and then I dance some.
Moving forward on my grief journey.
Hugs!
