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GriefWalk 2004 Saturday, November 5th,
from
Rain or Shine! Read more about the first GriefWalk in 1999 see
below. GriefWalk: A Path to
Healing Brookside Gardens, 1800 Glenallan
Ave, Wheaton MD 20902 GriefWorks is sponsoring a healing
walk in the tranquil setting of Brookside to
offer a reflective time to honor the deep and aching wounds of grief and
loss. As you take the path to healing, decide what it is that YOU want to
have happen - forgiveness, freedom from inappropriate guilt, a closure on
some part of your past, or just a connection with other hurting people?
The walk is free. 3.00 p.m. (rain or shine) Begin at the Visitor
Center, where you will be given a guide suggesting how to use the walk
through the gardens in a helpful way. There is no need to pre-register, no
T-shirts, no pins, just show up! Set your own pace, or join a group.
Return to the To learn more or to be on the mailing list
contact: GriefWorks: a counseling and consulting agency specializing in grief and
loss 843 281 4232 http://www.griefworks.com/ Celia Ryan, LCSW-C, DCSW, CT celiaryan@griefworks.com GriefWalk 1999 November
6th, 1999 was a lovely Autumn day at Brookside Gardens in Montgomery
County, Some 50 people came to participate in GriefWalk 99 and left behind some poignant words and
pictures of their experience. "I came here to grieve my parent, but
I found myself lost in the sorrow about something else instead. It
must have been important to me, although I didn't recognize
it..." "Grieving people give off the perfume of
courage..."said one participant, relating to the empty rose garden, where
only the memory of the flowers was present. "Pouring out the water was such a
powerful symbol..." GriefWalk was designed to provide
participants with an opportunity for a guided walk through a tranquil
garden setting. Using seven of the Garden titles and the Japanese tea
house, Celia wrote a guide that provided people with help and suggestions
for reflection and meditation as they visited each of the
areas. At the Japanese tea house they were invited to dip some water from a
container and pour the water into the pond as a symbol of letting go of
pain, sorrow, hurt, anger...whatever, or just to symbolize the stream of
life and tears that have been or need to be shed. If you could not attend this event and you would like to do a GriefWalk on your own, you may request a guide from
GriefWorks by calling 843 281 4232 or emailing at celiaryan@griefworks.com Submitted by Roger Barnes, M. Div, LCSW-C November 1999
GriefWalk: A Path to
Healing was held at on
Saturday, November 6th, 1999 The self-guided walk began at three
and ended with a Candlelight Gathering at 4.30 GriefWorks* presented an opportunity for a guided walk through a tranquil garden setting where anyone who has ever been touched by a loss could spend time in reflection. By symbolic and ritual actions throughout the walk, one was encouraged to leave behind some of the pain and replace it with some healing. Grief can come from any significant loss, whether death, divorce, illness, incarceration, displacement, natural disaster; or from loss of role, vigor, job, home, meaning, direction and so on. Where? Brookside
Gardens in Wheaton MD. The gardens presented a unique opportunity
to take a self-guided walk, while thinking about the tragedy and loss in
our lives, personal and communal. Walking in a peaceful setting, one could
quietly reflect on the meaning of loss in one's life. While walking, there
was an opportunity to "let go" of some of the hurt and pain that
accompanies loss. At the conclusion of the walk, people came to the
Brookside
Gardens is a tranquil and lovely fifty acre site in Montgomery County,
It is located at
Tel: 301 949 8230 Fax:
301 949 0571 GriefWorks* is a
community crisis stabilization agency with offices in
Journey Through
Grief "for Peace
comes dropping slow..." My favorite poem of all time is
" It is staggering to actually realize that a whole decade has passed since Andy was here. The enormity of it is somewhat unfathomable, and yet the fact is we, his friends and family, are all still here and surviving. I spent a lot of time telling myself and others that after the special service for Andy in May this year I would be finished with the need to publicly mark his anniversary. Not that I would be "over" it, for that can never be, but that the outward symbols and rituals no longer had to be expressed. I didn't really believe that it would happen but I hoped that I could say goodbye to this grief (the painful stuff) and move into mourning (the ever after stuff) and begin a new way of living without him. It has been a private and lonely marking all of these years (other than the first anniversary) since my husband and his brothers were not willing or able to share in a public memorial of any kind. I quickly found that everyone has to cope with grief in his or her own way and not everyone was going to find my ways helpful. Early on I decided to do whatever I needed to do, to invite others to share with me, and to accept it if they chose not to join me. On the tenth anniversary however, I felt a deep need to have support and I was a little surprised (and pleased) when my two adult sons, my husband and my teen daughter all agreed to attend the special service I had arranged. (We have no family in this country other than each other). My husband was moved to order the brass nameplate for the bench we donated to Andy's school. He had been "meaning" to do it for ten years, ever since we had the bench installed… My oldest son was moved to enter counseling, something he had been "meaning" to do for much longer than ten years…my daughter was moved to ask some more questions (she was only four when Andy died) which she had probably been "meaning" to do for a long time…and Andy's identical twin, my middle son, was moved to tears, something he has "meant" to do for ten years… Sitting on the bench on the anniversary day of Andy's death ten years before was a most profound and cathartic event. We went over to the school to place the nameplate on the bench and then we just spent a long time reflecting about those days a decade ago. Those days sometimes seem like just yesterday as we honored our personal pain at the loss, but we also celebrated our survival (and indeed surmounting) of this loss and its meaning in our lives. There was a kind of healing that took place there that we each have found comforting in a way that is freeing. I have come to some closure with this time; it is real. I trust it now, as the days go by, in a way that I didn't think would be authentic even though I spoke the words and only hoped they would be true. A few weeks ago I awoke very early and attended to what had been just below my consciousness for weeks. I had envied people who seemed to find the "right" closure on a part of their grief (be it a scholarship, a new direction, a donation, a tree planting, etc) but nothing ever seemed to be right for me. Now it came to me clearly and powerfully…a GriefWalk! That is how I will honor my son, my grief, my survival and I can share it with others. What a gift! I know that, whatever this walk means for any other person, I walk for Andrew and for all of my loved ones and when I have come to the end, so it is with this decade of my loss. "And I shall have some peace there
For peace comes dropping
slow" |
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