OK. I have “Breaking News.”

I need your help, and, don’t worry, it has NOTHING TO DO with MONEY!!!

Starting shortly, we will be hosting an “Ask Dr Bill” ON VIDEO. Right here on this web site, you will be able to come online and ask me any question you have as a grieving person and I will try to answer it …. in PERSON on VIDEO. I am hoping this will provide another valuable resource for people suffering through a significant loss.

Here’s where I am asking your HELP.

What are the questions YOU feel grieving people would like to have answered??? What could I offer by way of suggestions etc. to people who want to HELP a grieving person I don’t want to ASSUME that I know all the questions, so I am seeking your help.

E mail me YOUR question, or the ones you feel would be most relevant and helpful in this kind of forum,. and I will seek to put together a list of questions (then figure out some answers!!)

Please send your e mails to drwebster@griefjourney.com .

We hope to have this new feature up and running in the next little while. So keep checking in with us … we have spent quite a few months developing new resources for you, and soon you will be able to see for yourselves what we have been up to.

Thanks

Dr Bill

Thought for the Day:

“People may differ in tradition, language, beliefs and experience, but they all have one common denominator: a desire to be treated like HUMAN BEINGS.”

Ask any funeral director if you don’t believe me!

There are probably more deaths that occur in the week between Christmas and New Years than any other single week. Certainly in OUR newspaper, the obituaries went up dramatically from the usual daily number, about 50% in fact. While there are probably reasons why this occurs (people holding on for Christmas, one last chance to see the family etc. etc.) this is not the reason for this BLOG.

Many of you have “been there” … you have experienced the loss of a loved one, and the grief that follows.

As NEW people find this web site, looking for comfort and hope … WHAT WOULD YOU SAY to them. What did you find most helpful. What did you do that was most helpful? What do you wish you had done sooner, or differently.

E mail me your responses and we will collate the ideas into a blog or helpful article for people. By sharing YOUR experiences, and helping others, you may find surprising benefits.

ALSO, while I am asking for help here, are you a PHOTOGRAPHER?

As you know we use many images in our meditations etc. and we thought that some of you might like to submit some of your photos to be included in our meditations…. a scene, a flower, an individual … something that would be of interest.

Perhaps with the picture, you could also indicate the message or the emotion you feel it portrays. Depending on the response, we will offer several PRIZES and everyone who submits a photograph will be entered into the competition. Several people sent us some beautiful pictures lately which will complement our new upcoming meditations, and so we thought many more of you might like to get involved.

Keep an eye on this blog … we have some other ideas which we will be revealing shortly.

Dr Bill

Thoughts for the Day:

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

“Ulcers are something you get from mountain climbing over molehills.”

“You can’t change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.”

“We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they DO.”

In his New Years Day message for the dark days of 1939, with war looming, King George VI quoted the words of M. Louise Haskins, who wrote:

And I said to the man who stood
at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that
I may tread safely into
the unknown.”

And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into
the Hand of GOD. That
shall be to you better
than light and safer than
a known way.”

2008 marks 100 years from the time Louise Haskins wrote her famous poem, and I can think of no better wish for all of you as we begin the New Year.

We want to try to make this blog a LOT more interactive in 2008. Up to now, it has been me penning MY thoughts and feelings, but now I would like to hear from YOU. I think there is a lot of wisdom that many of you have gained through your experiences of grief and loss, and I would like to learn from them, and share it with everyone else.

So starting FRIDAY, keep checking in with the blog and lets hear from you.

Dr Bill