You may already be tweeting but how about tweeting your blog posts? Well before you can tweet your blog posts you have to know how to blog. Are you ready to learn how to blog?
If you know someone or if you want to start a blog learn from a master.
Problogger, Darren Rowse has an awesome course on starting a blog. Another reason to review this class is if you have not been blogging in a while. What a great way to get a refresher because some things may have changed and this can get your current.
So, happy blogging and once you get started you can be a guest blogger right here.
Also, do the work you must do in preparation but do not let perfectionism get in the way of getting your blog started. Click this link to get more information on how to start a blog in 2019
I want to share some insights from a fellow baby boomer who, hopefully, will soon be blogging. She is one of the co-directors of the Echoes Grief Center in Orange, NJ. She also runs a writing group there to help others deal better with their grief. I predict a lot of bloggers will evolve from this group.
Please feel free to share your insights and links to any articles or blog posts you have written. As baby boomers we have experienced so much death, sadness and
Let Someone Know You are Praying for them
SADNESS AND WINTER HOLIDAYS by Charlene Mason-Reese MSW, LCSW
Gaiety, joy, good wishes appear
to dominate the weeks from Thanksgiving until New Year. People want to be
happy, families want Thanksgiving meal to be full of good memories, because
family members have not seen each other in sometime. Their mouths are already
tasting the comforting foods they know will be served; stuffing themselves,
telling stories of remember when…..
The watching of the Thanksgiving
Macy Day Parade, marking the end of fall and seeing Santa bring in the winter
season, along with the holiday cheer. In the United States, Santa brings in
remembrances of many holidays, even for those that don’t celebrate Christmas.
To name a few Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Felice Navidad, and there are others that
author does not wish to discount, but these days bring feelings of joy and
grief. For some because the realization of their loss that may occurred
yesterday or ten years ago. It brings the challenge of what does one do with
those feelings? “I cried it out, right?” There are no more tears to cry. No one
wants to hear about my sadness, they are talking about what bargains they are
going to pick up Black Friday.
The stress of Black Friday, a
holiday all its own and the special meaning it is given, because each night the
newscasters tell us how many shopping days there are until Christmas, now that
tightens the noose, because that is a reminder of all that has not been done.
This does not take the people into the season over the edge, because the joy
that is anticipated of watching the children open the hard fought for gifts,
the long lines stood on. The looking and waiting for parking spaces, on to have
someone else pull in it-remember it is time for good will to all men
There are segments of the
population that all of this happiness, the season especially !….makes their
world seem even dimmer – that is the people who GRIEVE for what they have lost.
The loss may have been recent or
may be one that other people feel they should have gotten a handle on, the
death occurred so long ago. It is difficult to be in around people who are
openly expressing their happiness and then there is the person who feels as
though their heart has broken and the pieces are free floating. As the person
who is experiencing these feelings, you also have feelings of guilt. You don’t
want to take away the joy others are feeling, but you really can’t understand
how the world is continuing as normal, while your universe has shattered. Who
can you go to, people may be tired of hearing about your loss, but don’t they know,
don’t they see that earth has stopped, it is no longer revolving around the
sun.
Family, friends are you aware of
the grieving person amongst you? Are you aware that they are sitting at the
table – you see them, but they see an empty seat where the deceased used to be,
even if it is occupied? Yes, others at the table may also feel the absence of
the departed, but grief is unique to each person, it depends on many things.
For one, it depends on the relationship of who died: spouse mother, father, child,
aunt, uncle, grandparent, or someone who was a confidant.
The person at the table who is
suffering the acute grief has burden of not showing the feeling, but putting on
a mask and responding, “I’m okay, everything is fine”.
How do all of you get through this
“happy season”?
One important way is to remember
the person, where appropriate. Talk about the deceased, they are a part of the
“remember when stories”. It is important not to act like they never existed or
it is a “no no” to bring the name of the individual up in conversation.
Think of the good times, how the individual enriched the lives of those around them, how having him or her in your world for whatever amount of time they were in your life outweighs the sadness that is legitimately felt at this time. The loss and sadness may be so overwhelming right now, but it can get better. If we permit it the deep painful sadness will become more of a shadow, a fog. The memory of the love one keeps the best part of them alive. As long as they are remembered there is a terminal death, because they will always be with us, we will feel the love.