This Just In...

• New Group Coach Session starts August 5th and is open for registration now.
  
  
• Mother Henna's 1,000 Permissions Granted book will be featured on two radio shows in August. Check out the site calendar for full info!
  

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BUSINESS CARD OF GRIEF...

a creative prompt & coaching tool
from Kara L.C. Jones

About a year ago, while teaching at a grief retreat, a newly bereaved mom told me that she was sick of being silent about her grief in order to be polite and keep the social awkwardness at a minimum. She was considering having a t-shirt made up that said, "Dead Baby Mom," with the black and white image of her dead baby's footprints under it. I LOOOOVED that idea and made note of it in my notebook. She is the inspiration for today's creative prompt.

There is so much speculation and judgment about grief, how we express grief, what is healthy, and what is socially acceptable. Sometimes the truly unhealthy stuff is actually coming from trying to conform your grief to some set of rules or another. The therapists consult their diagnosis books and say, "You have 6 months." The social workers consult their resources and tell us, "Grief has 5 stages." Our friends and family tell us how hard the first year will be, but often never realize how hard it is to face the second year. It is often socially unacceptable to talk about how the second year is a killer because this is when you realized that EVERY year for the rest of your life will be like this. The dead person will not come back in any of the following years. Of course our perspectives shift and change as we learn and grow ourselves. We become our own best advocates and start to find our way. BUT the initial hindrances of grief etiquette can feel extremely constricting. Like wearing a whale bone corset 24/7.

So this week's creative prompt is asking you to be honest about wherever you are in your grief experience. If you shed the polite stuff, what would your business card really say? What t-shirt would you really wear? When you attend events and have to fill in those "My Name Is..." stickers, what would you really like to write?

Try actually making up a mock up of one of these like I've done with the business card in this post. You can do it up digitally on your computer OR get out the paper, scissors, glue, and markers and begin playing. Use up old business cards by using the blank backs to make your business card of grief. Have a few of those random name stickers in a drawer? Take one out and write what you really want to write. Cut out paper in the shape of a t-shirt and write what you want across it. OR take an old t-shirt, turn it inside out or backwards. Write on it with a sharpie marker!

Of course, I'd love to get a glimpse at how your playing turns out, so please feel free to share your process and results with us by leaving comment, posting links or images over on MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or at the MISS Creation Station forum!

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Blessing to Each of You!

Reiki to you:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

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SHARE THIS ZINE WITH OTHERS...

To share the KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art eZine with others, click here...

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DISCUSS?

Or you can join our Grief & Creativity Discussion Group which is a mix of caregivers, artists, and people looking for support in their own processes.

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TAKE A HOME WORKSHOP

Our home workshops (click here) are set up for you to explore creatively at your own pace. We've heard from artists, bereaved families, pastors, grief support volunteers, creative therapists who have all found great benefit, both personally and professionally, from the materials and experience of our home workshops. Registration is only $35/participant this summer - start today by clicking here....

COACHING FOR YOU!

About 98% of the time, we stop ourselves at the point of a certain permission. We cannot seem to give ourselves permission to grieve, or to learn to feel good again, or to take a new risk, or to find our own way. Coach Kara offers Creativity support as you begin and sustain your Practice of Permission! If you'd rather work in a small group for coaching, come join us for the next session starting August 5th!!

THE CARDS TELL US...

Madame Zolda has launched her own blog to offer you a free Card For The Day. If you want a personal session that include Reiki meditation, card reading and creative prompts, click here to schedule today...

DO YOU PRACTICE PERMISSION?

1,000 Permissions Granted is collection of creative permission slips.

See photos of the real book in hand, click here...

Get copy of press release plus free 40-page PDF excerpt of the book, click here...

OUR ART IS NOW YOURS!

See the heART-works now available as postcards, folded cards, matted prints, framed prints, mounted prints, and posters via MotherHenna's RedBubble shop. Check it out! Perfect for interior designers, shopping for clients, building your resource idea folders! Come browse in our Gallery.