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Spring BE News

Hello, BE friends! If you are like me, you are very confused by this weather. And I cannot even tell you how that affects my little darlings at school! I am very thankful for Spring Break and the opportunity to rest and recharge. 
I wanted to give you an update on the BE programs:

  • Coping With Life Alone has 9 participants and we are in the middle of the virtual series of sessions. They are going very well thanks to an amazing team of facilitators: veteran Tony Molina, brand-new Brad Lorang and out-of-towner Eva Morris. Eva answered my plea for facilitators to International. She comes from New Hampshire. 
  • BE Weekend is scheduled for April 29-May 1, at Savior of the World Pastoral Center in Kansas City, KS. Past participants are our best advertisement, so if you know of someone who would benefit from attending, please have them sign up on the website or give me a call at 913-314-9844. 
  • If you’d like to help with set up or clean up during the Weekend, we would love to have you!
  • Finally, please, continue to keep Beginning Experience of Greater Kansas City in your prayers. This is a life-changing ministry and we need volunteers, donations and prayers!

Have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day and Spring!

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BE needs YOU!

Happy Monday and welcome to the Kansas City heat! I thought for a while we would be able to escape it this year but it is back. As we close July and look forward to August, I want to invite you to join me in planning our Picnic scheduled for August 22. I am famous for short and meaningful planning meetings so I promise you I will not waste your time.  There will be just an initial Zoom meeting so you don’t even need to leave your house, car, pool, office, wherever you may be! If you can be on the organizing committee, please email me at mmeli62@gmail.com or call/text me at 913-314-9844. 

If you want to learn more about the Picnic or the Halloween Dance, please read the previous blog post down below. 

Thank you for reading this and Have a great week!

Maria Meli

 

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Music to Soothe a Broken Heart

Let Music Soothe Your Soul

Music is often overlooked as a therapeutic intervention: singing, listening, and creating music of any kind will provide an immediate biological and psychological benefit for everyone.

Here are some recommendations regardless of where you are in the grief stages.

Everything Falls – Fee
Just Breathe – Johnny Diaz
Let it Hurt – Rascal Flats
Place in this World – Michael Smith
Take This Mask From Me – Jesse Manibusan
Broken Hallelujah – The Afters/Mandisa
If We’re Honest – Francesca Battistelli
Learn to be Still – Eagles
Place in the World – Michael Smith
Nobody Knows – Kevin Sharp
Sounds of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
I’m Movin’ On – Rascal Flatts
Two Steps from Broken – Rita McNeil
You Were Loved – Wynonna Ryder
The Wings That Fly Us Home – John Denver
Anytime You Need a Friend – Mariah Carey
Bring on the Rain – JoDee Messina
There is a Reason – Allison Kraus
Angels Among Us – Alabama
Here I am Lord – John Michael Talbot
You Will Never Walk Alone – Point of Grace
Shelter Me – John McDermott
I Am Not Alone – Natalie Grant
Be Not Afraid – Jesse Manibusan/John Michael Talbot/St. Louis Jesuits
Forgiven – Critical Mass
When I Heal – Sandi Patty
I’m Forgiven – Sanctus Real
Losing – Tenth Avenue
Who I Am – Casting Crowns
How Can it Be – Lauren Daigle
Mended – Matthew West

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Wounded Healers Share How Beginning Experience Helped

From Darkness to New Life

 

Wounded Healers share how Beginning Experience of Greater Kansas City, Inc. helped them through the nearly unbearable feelings of loss, loneliness and grief. The loss of a loved one through separation, divorce, or death is one of life’s most traumatic experiences.

The purpose of the Beginning Experience ministry is to facilitate the grief resolution process for separated, divorced and widowed persons, thereby enabling them to again love themselves, others and God.

Please allow a few seconds for the video to load.

 

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Sister Josephine’s Prayer for Beginning Experience

Sister Josephine Stewart

We thank you and praise you, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the gift of Beginning Experience entrusted to its founders Sister Josephine and Jo Lamia and treasured and nurtured by all generations of teams down through its history. We thank you and praise you for this little mustard seed now full grown and flourishing in so many parts of the world. Bless our International Board and all the local teams throughout the world. Bless all of us who work in your vineyard of Beginning Experience. Give us to drink of your spirit of inspiration and give us the energy to follow this inspiration in your ministry. Send your Holy Spirit to heal our brokenness and our errors. Direct us on our journey to do your will. Bless us with abundance.

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Five Stages of Grief

Five Stages of Grief

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist, proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of adjustment. These five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In general, individuals experience most of these stages, though in no defined sequence, after being faced with the reality of their new single-again life.

Denial
An initial feeling of numbness, then thinking, “This cannot really be happening to me.”

Anger
Feeling of rage against God, the former spouse, others, and even one’s self.

Bargaining
With the former spouse to “patch things up,” or with God to “take this problem away.”

Depression
Feeling helpless, floundering, lifeless, and in extremes, even suicidal.

Acceptance
Reality of the loss is dealt with. The person grieving is at peace and is hopeful. A new beginning is experienced.

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Our Favorite Poem and Links

Beginning Experience

The Merton Prayer

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
~Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude”

Favorite Links