I am totally thrilled to have been invited to teach an online class through the Creative Grief Studios Summer Playshop series. AND… I have 1 ticket to award to 1 lucky person to attend my class on Painting Your Way Through The Mystery Of Grief.
To win a spot in this fun and powerful class please post your favorite grief and/ or creativity quote in the comments below. I’ll draw a name from the magic sorting hat and announce the winner here on June 17, 2015.
“Your pain is the breaking of a shell that encloses your understanding”
Gibran
Funny Gibran popped into my head too, before I saw comments! “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” -Gibran
“Grief does not change you Hazel. It reveals you.” ~ said by Peter van Houten in “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green. Grief has certainly revealed me, warts and all :) xoxo Chris!
I love Stephen Jenkinson’s view on grief. He stretches it and shifts the perspective by arguing that without grieving everything around us, even when we haven’t lost it yet, we can not really fully live an intense and love filled life;
“Whenever and wherever grief encounters psychology it sadly is turned into a trauma in need to be treated. But grief, grieving properly, walking through life in a grieving state of mind, is really the antidote to death phobia, and thus to the shallow living we do”
“THe purpose of art is not a rarified, intellectual distillate – it is life, intensified, brilliant life”
Alain Arias-Misson
“Funerals are for the living. Have the funeral for your loved one that you want.” ~ Patty Popek
there is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messages of overwhelmed grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. Washington Irving.
Grief is not a disorder a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. Earl Grollman.
Grieving must be done with people, it must be witness and seen – seeing it on paper through painting is a blessing and so very healing. Helen Segal
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messages of overwhelmed grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. Washington Irving.
Grief is not a disorder a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. Earl Grollman.
Grieving must be witness and seen – seeing it on paper through painting is a blessing and so very healing. Helen Segal
“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.” — Ernest Hemingway
Working through some very personal grief and shadow work. Learning to let creativity become a trusted outlet.
Thanks for this opportunity, sweet Chris!
“i deeply and profoundly acknowledge and accept this pain, loss, grief and suffering.”
mantra provided to me by my chiropractor/shaman/guru/friend John-Ji.
grief can be complicated – it can follow us through lifetimes and lineage. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know ourselves and our history profoundly, and deeply.
“Be a lamp, a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal.” -Rumi
This…this…this…is what I want to do for people who are grieving. ..because, I truly believe that art is therapeutic and heals broken hearts! -Deborah
Aren’t petals the most exquisite things?
And yet
If you try to hold onto
A handful of blossom,
Each one will turn to a withered memory
In your hand.
Whatever it is in you that wants to die,
Let life have its way.
Lie down in those petals
And let them drink you in.
But do not hold onto them;
Do not deny them their right to
Return to the earth
And take part in
The great cycle of
Things
That
Cannot
Last.
– hollie holden
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
For in grief, nothing stays put. One keeps emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles or dare I hope I am on spiral?
But if a spiral, am I going up or down it?
How often — will it be for always? — how often will the vast emptiness astonish me like a complete novelty and make me say, “I never realized my loss till this moment”? The same leg is cut off time after time. CS Lewis
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
Dylan Thomas
“When I am gone, release me….let me go
I have so many things to see and do.
You mustn’t tie yourself to me in tears,
Be happy that we had so many years.
So grieve awhile for me if you must
Then let your grief by comforted by trust
It’s only for a while that we must part
So bless the memories within your heart.”
Anon
Wow. Thank you for the opportunity.
“This too shall pass” is what I believe in. And yay I have it as a tattoo to remind me. I process the grief, accept it shed tears acknowledge it. But deep down also know that this will pass. And there will be sunshine. Grief especially that of passing of dear ones stays for ever. But one learns to heal it. I know because I lost my dad when I was 7. Not a day has gone by when I have not felt the presence.
When my mother died, which has been many years ago, I went through such a deep depression in the grieving. This is what I came to know and understand fully, my own words, “Death changes the living”.
Grief never ends….but it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith…. It’s the price of love.
Author unknown.
I would love to experience this course…..thank you for the opportunity to enter, thank you!
In the words of a Lana Del Rey song, called “Summertime Sadness”
“Think I’ll miss you forever, like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky…”
And then there’s this quote by Vicki Harrison:
“Grief is like the ocean. It comes on waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.”
Thank you so much for this opportunity, Chris. This really sounds like something I could benefit from.
Mourning is not forgetting
It is an untying
Every minute tie must be untied
and something valuable recovered from the knot
Blessed are they who mourn
for they shall be comforted.
Margorie Allensforth
“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning to suffering.” Victor Frankl
“Grief is like the ocean;
it comes in waves,
ebbing and flowing.
Sometimes the water is calm,
and sometimes it is overwhelming.
All we can learn to do is swim.”
-Vicki Harrison