Today I did a full day of training for facilitating grief groups. I learned a lot. Every day I'm amazed by how much I don't know! Most of the time, it's things that I've already taken to heart because of an awesome mother... who's also a walking encyclopedia/the queen of common sense. However, I'm still amazed by my own ignorance.
What was born out of today is an idea to start a grief support group at Calvin. I don't know if we already have one... but one led by students would be pretty sweet. I'm already laden with a bunch of really cool ideas. I want to start painting my rocks already! See... in one of the activities you take out rocks one at a time. Each rock has a feeling painted on it... like HURT... or POWERLESS... or guilty... or tired. Then you pass the rock around and whoever is holding it can "own the feeling" and talk about why they feel that way... or pass the rock on. At the end, you can put all the rocks back into a bag and then have each person carry the bag. (These are fairly hefty rocks by the way). You can say... see how heavy it is? Imagine if you tried to carry all that around without unpacking some of it! How would you feel? That's why it's so important to talk about how you feel with people you trust. Ok so maybe it's a children's activity... but I think it would help me. It's fun just to hold the stones in your hand.
Anyway, it seems that a lot of my interests have one common theme. You have to be a really good listener. I did as a Barnabas, I did as a nursing student, even in SWAT you have to listen well (that's my improv group by the way). Being a good listner is difficult. You have to express connection, but not take over the conversation. You have to be empathetic without being sympathetic. You have to bite your tongue about 7 million times. And number one, you have to remember that you CAN'T FIX things. The rule in counseling or facilitating is always that the clients have to fix themselves... but in the greater scheme of things (aka with eyes of faith) we have to remember that we can't fix people - only God can do that.
Well enough rambling. I thought I would write three posts to make up for the writer's block I had since Tuesday :)
Love and prayers to all (hey if I'm praying for random unknown people hurt/struggling by alcohol... then I'm definitely praying for you too!)
Katie
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Fascinating!! You know, I have talked to a lot of people lately about grief, and I'm wondering more about what your facilitating group looked like. Was it a support group or something? Yes, this summer is going well, I was alluding earlier to the problems that we kinda started communicating about, and that this summer I'm actually starting to actively seek health. Please pray for me!! But I love your blog entries!! You're in my prayers :)
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