Monthly reflections from Kevin Keelen.
Each month, our bereavement minister Kevin Keelen shares a short reflection: a thought, a story, or a gentle companion for wherever you are on your grief journey. New writings appear here as they are published.
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Reflection, May 05, 2020
Dear Friends, Well it’s Cinco de Mayo, a day that many non-Mexicans unknowingly refer to as Mexican Independence Day. But it’s not. It’s timely though, as we all are longing for a new independence from this seemingly eternal lockdown. It has become evident that people are getting antsy and fed up with quarantining (I know…
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Reflection, April 30, 2020
Dear Friends, As I get more accustomed to the Zoom support group meetings, I am growing much more appreciative of the technology and the opportunity it affords us. Not so long ago, if this pandemic had hit, we would have been even more isolated and alone -devoid of such means to communicate as we have…
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Reflection, April 29, 2020
Dear Friends, One of our mantras at Stephy’s Place is: ‘allow yourself to feel your feelings.’ I know I’ve said it a million times and will continue to say it. I’d like to share my own personal experience of this; yesterday I said it to myself as I took a long, beautiful walk. I wrote…
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Reflection, April 28, 2020
Dear Friends, It’s almost incomprehensible, but I learned that my nephew Patrick (yes the same name as my brother who died) is in the hospital with COVID19. Patrick is the son of my brother James who lives in VA. To think that my family could lose our two Patricks in one month, it’s surreal, it’s…
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Reflection, April 23, 2020
April 23, 2020 Dear Friends, Yesterday our friend, Dr. Wolfelt in his book, “Grief One Day at a Time,” quoted a Buddhist monk and today he quotes a Catholic monk named Thomas Merton. I really admire how Alan Wolfelt is able to draw upon the wisdom and insights of all religions while not advocating any…
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Reflection, April 22, 2020
We’ve all heard the commercial, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” It gets a lot of laughs and a lot of mileage. I think we can all relate to having had a good fall when we thought we’d never be the same again. It might be happening now in the midst of this world-wide…
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Reflection, April 21, 2020
Dear Friends, Yes we are watching TV on Saturday nights now. This past Saturday there was a virtual concert special called, “One World; Together at Home,” which was refreshingly broadcasted on multiple and competing stations. It was organized by Global Citizen in support of the World Health Organization. I was transfixed as I watched artists…
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Reflection, April 16, 2020
Dear Friends, Can you believe that it has been a month since we had to shut down Stephy’s Place and enter into this new quarantined existence? I never imagined we would be separated for this long, and now it seems it will continue for some time. And to be honest, I feel like I’m running…
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Reflection, April 15, 2020
Dear Friends, I spent New Year’s this year in El Salvador and I am drawn to one of their national heroes, Oscar Romero. He was an archbishop who was assassinated while celebrating Mass for the poorest of the poor in his country. Before his tragic death, Romero had a ‘conversion’ experience in which his eyes…
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Reflection, April 14, 2020
Dear Friends, It is Easter Monday morning as I write this reflection. Outside a nor’easter is raging, and as the brutal winds batter the cold, hard rain onto my window panes, I can’t see too much through them because it is so dark and dreary. This is Easter? This is downright depressing. Ironically I am…