Journey Through Grief Newsletter

Sign up for the monthly newsletter if:

• you want to keep updated about developments on this site
• you want to keep updated about Janelle's book publication
• you want to keep updated about poetry readings that are open to the public
• you feel there are a lot of reflective exercises or ideas on this site that you would like to come back to some time
• you would like to receive a monthly photo with questions for reflection
• you are in the midst of grief and don't have the energy for much on this site, but hope to some day

My Writing Journey

About two years ago I was visiting a writing website, I knew that for me writing would be important for my healing. Yet I had absolutely no energy to begin. But I decided to sign up for their ezine. Every couple of months the writing newsletter would come to my email inbox. I would read it and wish I had the energy to do it.

Although I couldn't find the strength to do the writing exercises at the time, the receiving of the regular ezine was a way of holding that desire in my life. I continued to keep it before me for month after month. Then one day an amazing thing happened, I found myself writing an article for a website--then another and another. And slowly this site has been forming.

So if this site's ideas, exercises, way of seeing grief and loss as a journey feels like something you'd like to make more a part of your life . . . some day, I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter. It may be your once a month reminder to hold your healing journey, and some day you too may be surprised to find yourself living into your own healing.

Gems for the Journey

I called this newsletter "Gems for the Journey" because the last gift John had given me before he died was pearl earrings. Just a few weeks before he died I had been reading about how pearls are formed. I learned that oysters get a piece of debris stuck inside their shell. This piece of stone or driftwood or trash may actually cause them pain or trauma. Instead of rejecting this distressing debris, they hold it. Eventually a pearl is formed from this foreign object.

I wore those pearl earrings everyday for nearly two years. They became a prayer for myself that I would learn to hold my pain and find something precious within it. So this ezine is titled Gems for the Journey in hope that you too will find treasure within your own inner healing.

Included in Gems for the Journey:

• new photos with a written reflection
• new reflection exercises
• new articles about things I've been learning about the grief journey
• new ideas of creating memory books for loved ones or scrapbooking your own journey
• updates from the site
• dates and locations where I'll be speaking or giving a retreat

The form below will add your name to the subscription list for Gems for the Journey. You will receive a confirmation email so that I know that someone else did not add your name to the list. Once you send the confirmation, you will be on the list and will receive the next regularly scheduled email. You are free to unsubscribe anytime, and I will not use your address for anything other than Gems for the Journey.

You can also see back issues by clicking here.

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