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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Nomadland
Nomadland Dear Friends, Grief, especially early on, has been compared to being lost in a desert, or to being in the middle of the ocean in a boat without oars, or to a vast and frightening wilderness. It’s all accurate. You know it as well as anyone else does. Last night, without knowing anything about…
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Denial Dance
The Denial Dance Dear Friends, Today’s entry in Grief One Day at a Time, by Alan Wolfelt, talks about the role that denial plays in grief: “Denial is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the grief journey. Temporarily, denial, like shock and numbness, is a great gift. It helps us survive the early days…
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remembering Marion
Remembering Marion Dear Friends, On Thursday April 22nd the members of The New Life Support Group (who were the founding board of Stephy’s Place) attended the funeral for our matriarch and co-founder, Marion Fitzgerald. I had written about Marion in my January reflection as she was battling cancer, and I thank all of you for…
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Nature nurtures
Nature Nurtures Dear Friends, “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the…
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Guilt
Pleading Guilty Dear Friends, The subject of guilt comes up quite often in our support groups, and even though ‘guilt’ didn’t make it to the final list of the “Stages of Grief,” the famous book by Elizabeth Kubler Ross, it might as well have in my opinion. Like all the ‘stages,’ listed (denial, anger, bargaining,…
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Signs of Spring
Signs of Spring Dear Friends, It is no coincidence that Easter happens as Springtime begins to burst forth with new life, when color is re-introduced into the landscape, and the warmth of the sun can finally be felt on our faces again. In Christianity, Easter is very much about the reassurance we often need to…
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Sacred Stories
SACRED STORIES Dear Friends, “And even when you’ve become a master journeyer, and you know well the terrain of your grief, you will at times feel like you are backtracking and being ravaged by the forces around you. This, too, is the nature of grief.” (Alan Wolfelt, Understanding Your Grief p. 3) With last night’s…
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Re entry
Re-Entry Dear Friends, It was almost a year ago, in my reflection from last May, when I was naively hopeful that things would open up quickly, that I wrote about some of the hesitation that people may have about ‘re-entry’ into some sense of normalcy once the pandemic calmed down. Now, even though the numbers…
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Loneliness to Solitude
March 14, 2021 LONELINESS TO SOLITUDE Dear Friends, It was St. Patrick’s Day last year that I last saw my brother Patrick. His nursing home went into lockdown on March 18th, and he died on March 28th. I can hardly believe it’s been a whole year. In grief it can feel like 20 years and…
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Where the heavens are full of promise
Where the heavens are full of promise Dear Friends, Some time in the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo shared these thoughts: “There are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and wear us down, when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening, when our lives have no music in…