Connection Through Shared Experiences
The positive side of social media
If the positive side of social media has taught us anything, it’s that something pretty special happens when people connect through shared experiences. Whether they connect through a passion for Disney vacations, are avid gardeners, or – yes – even connect because of shared loss and grief – there is power in that shared connection.
Our team at Park Memorial continues to be humbled by the privilege that we have to serve our grieving community by providing safe spaces for people to come together and connect in their grief. This past week saw both our Men’s Grief Support group coming together for their monthly grief discussion as well as our return to our monthly Art for the Grieving Heart program that joins a grief-related art project with a facilitated grief discussion.
Our Men’s Grief Support group is a new monthly program at Park, offering men a safe space to come together with others who truly understand to share, listen, and explore their grief with as much vulnerability and participation as they feel comfortable. The gentle spirit of the group facilitator, David St. Arnault, helps to create this haven that is such a rarity for men, even though grief doesn’t discriminate. After two sessions, we have received guest comments like “A tip of the Biltmore to Park Memorial for hosting this very important session” and “I felt safe and listened to”. One of the things that we also offer at these complimentary group sessions is some tactile distraction that can help free the mind and the heart to better engage. One of these activities is the making of a key chain whereby guests can each choose a word and incorporate it into a simple keychain that they create and keep.
We welcomed some new faces to October’s Art for the Grieving Heart where the focus was on the ‘prickles of grief’ as we were led in a pom-pom cactus crafting activity by our funeral director, Alexandra. In addition to facilitating our monthly crafting activities, Alexandra uses her passion for crafting as a tool to heal her own grief. We talked about how not only grief can feel suddenly very prickly out of the blue, but that it can also make us as grievers feel – and be – prickly. We came up with some strategies for self-care to help soften the prickles, including reframing that the prickles only exist in areas where love also exists; grief is simply love that no longer has an earthly place to go.
Park Memorial was founded almost 82 years ago on the values of family, kindness, and community. We strive in every facet of our service to live by these as we serve today, and hopefully for many years to come. One of our beliefs that aligns with those values is that our community needs us to be of service beyond the funeral. To that end, our grief support programs are open to attendance by any members of the communities that we serve. We are grateful for each person who trusts us not only with the final care of their loved one, but also with their resulting grief.
To see all of our upcoming grief events, please visit: www.parkmemorial.com/comingevents
