All our workshops are listed in detail in our MotherHenna Blog, and include:
May 11th: Sunday Sacred Play Day - Noon to 5pm, Vashon Island, Fee: by donation - all mom's welcome - and if you are a bereaved mom and interested in a memorial henna body art design that day, I'll be offering them for free as a gift to honor your continued motherhood!
The Kota Loss & Compassion Blog has finally been launched. Though we've just launched with a few articles to get started, I do have every hope that it will grow into and extended resource of this site with several contributing authors and a place for readers to comment and discuss in safe space! Check it out.
Death Talk Podcasts
Wow, wow, wow. The Global Grief Network is now streaming podcasts for the series Death Talk with hosts Ms. Katie Dean and Dr. Joanne Cacciatore. These shows are absolutely profound. Check them out -- you can subscribe via iTunes directly or snag them from the Death Talk site.
New video and upcoming MISS Foundation Conference
Many of you know that Hawk and I also work as HOPE Mentors for the MISS Foundation. Hawk and I will be at the 2008 International MISS Foundation Conference and Parental Bereavement Retreat in Arizona in September. We hope to see old friends and, though I will be very sorry to see new faces in need there, we hope to meet you in person if we haven't previously had the chance. If you've never been to a MISS Conference before, I highly recommend it. It is an amazing crucible of grief and healing. You can read about my experiences at previous conference by clicking here! If you are interested in learning more about MISS, check out this new video about their work:
Note From Editor
Spring is in full bloom here and everything is sunny and green. Yet. With Mothers Day and Fathers Day around the corner, I know that many bereaved parents are dreading this time of year. Will they be remembered? Will family and friends honor their parenthood even though their beloved child has died? Will anyone remember that Mothers Day was started by Julia Ward Howe as a mothers' protest against the deaths of their sons in the Civil War? Bereaved mothers are at the heart of the real meaning of Mothers Day!
Yet. Bereaved parents often feel very alone, isolated in a silent parenthood. All I can say, if you happen to find yourself in this "heart of darkness," is to please know that you are not alone.
If we can be of service to you in any way, please see the Contact page -- put "Kota Loss Journal" in the subject line of any email you send -- and be in touch with us via email or phone. We will do the very best we can to help, to put you in touch with resources in your area, to mail out any print resources that might be helpful, to listen and be present. You are not alone. Please know that. And if you have a need that feels more immediate than we can serve, please call for help:
And please feel free to take some time and surf around here in our site. We have a whole section of Articles about every topic we could think of about grief after the death of a child. There are many layers to this section, so please be sure you see all the options in the menu bars to the left of every page. If you find broken links or have links you think would be helpful additions, please be in touch with us. If you find we are not covering a topic that you might want to write about, please be in touch with us. If you are inspired by an article, scroll the whole way to the bottom as there is usually an "About the Author" section with information about how you can contact them directly if you want.
As always be gentle with yourself. Give it lots of time. Know you are not alone. Nuture your health and self-care.
And many miracles to you,
k-
Kota eNews and other Healing Art
You can subscribe by email or news feed to Kara's MotherHenna blog to get notice when we post KotaPress eNews there along with other grief and healing articles, henna theme'd pieces, 1,000 Faces art, and more -- as always email us if you have questions -- please put "MotherHenna Blog Questions" in the subject line of any email you send!
IMPORTANT PSA from MISS Foundation
The MISSing Angels Bill is an issue of CHOICE!
And Other Stuff
And some other news items and highlighted information:
*Looking for support, resource, education about dealing with life after the death of a child? Check out the Bereavement Conferences listings for new dates and organization offerings... The MISS 2008 Conference has been announced!
*Please contribute to our Dictionary of Loss. This online dictionary can easily grow to include new definitions from you, so please send in your ideas. Eventually we will look at possibilities for bringing it into print, too!
*We'll be offering our "Grief: Finding Our Way" workshop for small group, in-person sessions soon. Each person attending will get print copy of the workbook during retreat sessions. We'll post full details here and in eNews when dates are definite.
In the meantime, our Workbooks are now available via Lulu.com also!! You can now get the workbook "Grief: Finding Our Way" as a stand-alone, print item! This a great tool for experimenting with ideas for getting through the everyday, the holidaze, and more.
Speaking of the store! The introduction page to the Store has been revised in the hope that it is more straight-forward in helping viewers navigate the items available. All items available from us directly are offered via PayPal. These cannot be combined with items from outside vendors like:
Many of you ask us how you might help or contribute to our efforts here at KotaPress. Any purchase you make with us directly in our Store always helps. And we have a few other ways, you might try, too:
If you shop online anyway -- especially if you are doing your holiday shopping online -- try doing it thru the portal at iGive.com/KotaPress which gives a percent of all shopping sales back to us. You can get to most online retails thru iGive like Amazon, VistaPrint, Drugstore, MotherNature, OneStepAhead, Danskin, Just My Size, Coldwater Creek, Land's End, Eddie Bauer, and many more!
Or if you want a bit more flair, check out our Cafe Press store for HennaHealing and get one of Kara's original designs on a sweatshirt, tiled box, messanger bag, pillow, or any number of other items!
Or check out Mother Henna's new Etsy shop! These are artworks from Kara's 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna project -- available at MotherHenna.Etsy.com -- including cards, postcards, charm paintings, henna'd canvases and more...
Questions & Contributions
As always, if you have questions, just be in touch with us. If you want information about how to contribute to the site, zine, memorials, or dictionary, click here to see the Submission Guidelines section!
***
Post Script
Byron Katie Addresses Grief After Death of a Child...
If you've read any of my eNews or zine writings, you know that I find Byron Katie's "The Work" to be an amazing tool for meeting people exactly where they are in the moment! In an eNews from "The Work" there was a link to a YouTube video of Katie working with a man who thinks he's frustrated because his sister won't get over her daughter's death. Wow. How many of us have heard that from friends or family? How many of us have had that thought about ourselves, wondering if the grieving ever ends? Katie leads this gentleman through "The Work" so that he comes to his own experiential epiphany about his neice's death. It's an epiphany I came to about my own son, a conjunction where love is more than the grief, an epiphany that brought me to the idea for "A Different Kind of Parenting" back in 1999. Seeing Byron and this uncle work it through so quickly is very powerful! Check it out at:
