Dealing With My Grief

As the calendar tuns to November, I am reminded that this is National Children's Grief Awareness Month. As such I wanted to call attention to an organization that is helping children deal with grief. This is extremely important to me as I lost my father when I was 10.

Rays of Hope Children’s Grief Centre is one of the only of its kind in the nation. It is a safe, neutral place for adolescents to do the work of grief. Children who have experienced loss due to death, separation, divorce, incarceration, deployment, or foster care are encouraged to participate. Through facilitated peer support groups, children share experiences, use creative arts as tools of expression, and acquire coping skills to work through the tough issues that accompany grief. Services are offered at no charge. Registration for programs and camps is required.

The Rays of Hope staff and its trained volunteers facilitate the peer support groups, camps, and other programming. All of our offerings are facilitated by compassionate adults who guide, listen and support the children as they express their feelings, fears, and confusion as they begin the healing process.

This week I welcome:

Jessi Morgan, LMSW—Director at Rays of Hope Children’s Grief Centre in Midland, TX

and

Jennifer Bilbrey---Mother of 3 from Midland, TX. She is a mother to a 13, an 11 year old and her oldest daughter, Kali, who passed away at 15.

It is great to have a wonderful conversation with those who are helping other deal with the trauma of grief and those who are willing to be vulnerable and share their stories with others.

Visit the Rays of Hope website: https://raysofhopemidland.org/

Please support the organization by gifting them something from their Amazon Wish List:
https://smile.amazon.com/hz/charitylist/ls/2Z5M21JXIECHT/ref=smi_ext_lnk_lcl_cl

Learn more about Children's Grief Awareness Month:
https://childrengrieve.org/awareness/children-s-grief-awareness

Subscribe to this podcast by using one of the following:

Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
Click here to subscribe on Android
Click here to subscribe via RSS
Click here to subscribe on Spotify

Contact me using any of following:

email - darwyn@dealingwithmygrief.com

twitter - http://www.twitter.com/dealwithgrief

voice/message - (240) 778-5200

Facebook - https://facebook.com/groups/dealingwithmygrief

Instagram - https://instagram.com/dealingwithmygrief

Music provided by Oren Levine (oren@ohljazz.com)

When I'm not working my day job, I usually have a camera in my hand taking pics of allkind, either jazz musicians or anything I find interesting on the street.

Facebook reminded me that I took a picture of a homeless man 3 years ago. While the photography industry seems to look down on taking pictures of the homeless I look at them in the same light as children on the sindes of milk cartons.

See, when I was 10, no one asked me then or even since then "Why haven't I gotten over my fathers death?" I think as we give children a pass as we give them a little more sympathy because they are the innocent victims of losing a loved one. As I reflect on this, I realize that I was living in the moment after my dad's death.

I wasn't thinking about missing him when I was married of having children... I was only 10. I spent my time thinking about TOMORROW. That's all I could focus on... school, homework, TV, chores and playing (not necessarily in that order.) In that respect I think I'm fortunate.

Homeless \people are not as fortunate. They are shamed and blmed for the position they find themseves in and they should do more to try to better themselves. Almost in the same way adults should find ways to deal with the fact that death is a part of life and they should do more to "get over it,"

In a way, the homeless may not be any more responsible for where they are in life than those children on the side of the milk carton.

I thionk we need to pay equal attention to them all.

Announcement: I have a new podcast coming out with the hosts of the Grief Dreams podcast call Grief Cafe where we will discuss grief related topics.

You can find it here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grief-cafe/id1479286093