Narratives of Healing

Pastor Dan has discussed the stages of grief, but beyond acceptance is a sixth stage of finding meaning from our experience. The meaning of the pandemic is what we make it.  We create meaning through our narratives and witnessing of the challenges as well as the opportunities presenting to us.

What do we want people to know and learn from our experience?

People have their own paths of grief, which are often not a straight line.  Often we can move in and out of grief but this collection may serve as a landing place of meaning and hopefulness where people can visit as they are ready. 

Goal: Collect and create constructive, motivating and healing narratives

Let us be a force for healing rather than contributing to the suffering. We can fight the tendency to blame and demonize people, nations and cultures.  If COVID has taught us anything, it is that we are all vulnerable to that which cannot be seen. We do not have to let the politicians and the media write our narrative.  We can and will bring light to the bravery and the everyday existence that brings us closer to recovery from the pandemic. We are in the center of the storm, but these perspectives can bring meaning to our experience once the storm has cleared.

You are encouraged to provide input as and when you feel you are able. Click the button below to participate in the survey. You are invited to re-submit the form for all or some of the questions as time goes on, should you feel your responses have changed.

We will present the community’s responses to a different question each week on our blog https://www.graceuccnj.org/gracehappens. As each new blog post goes up, the content from the previous week’s post will be linked here, on this page, as an enduring resource. Blog posts will also go out in our monthly newsletter email blast.

We will collect these narrative threads of hope, experience, and learning and try to weave a cloth of hope and triumph over the virus that has put a halt to our lives, as we knew them. Ultimately, we can assemble therapeutic narratives based on themes that will arise from the collection.

You are invited to also share your favorite quotes and readings about strength in times of crisis, literature, Bible passages, movies, poems, etc., in the section of the survey reserved for anything else you might want to share. There is a also a button for adding attachments if there are any photos, artwork, etc., that you would like to share along with your survey responses.