Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT July 26th 2024

6 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting “The Smoke” by Matthew Wong, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about being lost in deep thought.”

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

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Please join us for our next session Monday July 29th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The Smoke by Matthew Wong

Credit: Matthew Wong

6 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT July 26th 2024”

  1. aliceanned6b473272's avatar aliceanned6b473272

    This session, like all of them, catalyzed incredible discussion. Thank you to all participants, and grateful to/for astute facilitators. Here’s what I wrote in response to the prompt:

    As I get older, I find myself needing and coveting deep thought time on a regular basis. I need to wall myself off and escape from the constant stream and noise of news chatter, social media feeds, and constant bombardment that discusses the celebrity relationships and divorce of the current Hollywood darling starlet, or the political musings of this senator or that presidential candidate, and unresolved political strife in the world. All of it is a constant cacophony of background noise – while I think about deep and existential questions – and how I can best help people dealing with the same.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. michele348's avatar michele348

    About being lost in deep thought~~~

    My mind is covered in multiple layers of emotions:sadness, fear, anxiety, and hope.

    I try to sort one from the otherbut they seem to be fusedinto one tangled mess,each competing with the otherfor a position of dominance.

    I convince myself,within this environment of confusion and distress,to focus on hopewhich seems to be hidingin the back cornersof my mind,timid and unsure.

    Hope is the emotional lifelinethat I can grasp and useto shovel through all the otherdestructive feelings andtoss them to the side.

    Maybe then the sun will shine brightlyand the meadowlark’s song will be heard.

    What becomes of lifeif hope is not a part of it…to know that I can endurethe dark valleys that life’s journeyplaces before me?

    I search out the light of hopeto be my beacon,to guide me on the remainderof my life journey.

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  3. michele348's avatar michele348

    About being lost in deep thought~~~

    My mind is covered in multiple layers of emotions:
    sadness, fear, anxiety, and hope.

    I try to sort one from the other
    but they seem to be fused
    into one tangled mess,
    each competing with the other
    for a position of dominance.

    I convince myself,
    within this environment of confusion and distress,
    to focus on hope
    which seems to be hiding
    in the back corners
    of my mind,
    timid and unsure.

    Hope is the emotional lifeline
    that I can grasp and use
    to shovel through all the other
    destructive feelings and
    toss them to the side.

    Maybe then the sun will shine brightly
    and the meadowlark’s song will be heard.

    What becomes of life
    if hope is not a part of it…
    to know that I can endure
    the dark valleys that life’s journey
    places before me?

    I search out the light of hope
    to be my beacon,
    to guide me on the remainder
    of my life journey.

    Like

    Reply
  4. rehavia6's avatar rehavia6

    Lost In Deep Thought

    I am apt to crash into things

    I am tuned out from the world and  do not hear

    when I am being spoken to.

    I cannot absorb my surroundings.

    Nothing exists outside my head.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. al3793's avatar al3793

    I sit in deep thought as I listen toan angel of the wardstell of a patientcanary yellow, with bronze urine and black stoolsand I discern a diagnosis and what to do.

    Yet my thought dives deeperwhen I present myself to attend to herto discern the the heart of a soulcoupled to a failing liver,skin the color of mustard,eyes sallow, sunken,affect sad, not knowing what awaits.The ward angel hovers near fraught with worry.

    Like nails drawn across a black boardpop ups break my thought.My brain must reset and with some effortI find my way back to my patient and my deep thought.

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    • michele348's avatar michele348

      The speaker provides a vivid description of the patient he sees before him. This physician looks beyond merely the physical body he sees lying before him… he looks to discern the soul of that person who is in failing health, realizing that at this point the patient is searching for compassion and comfort in her final end days of life. And what an immense gift this will be for that patient.

      Like

      Reply

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