The Drawing Together community convened again Sunday, November 28. Our host was Earla Legault. Earla is a self-taught artist who lives in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Earla is retired from working in libraries and dedicated to learning how to be creative while processing grief. She’s been leading sibling grief peer support groups on Zoom during the pandemic and now in person at the local hospice. And she plays the ukulele!
Drawing Music – here is a special playlist Earla made for our session.
Warm Up Exercise: Hand Tool
Slowly trace your hand, thinking of what a hand symbolizes to you:
– in our youth, perhaps a turkey, to symbolize Thanksgiving
– perhaps how, as we give of service, caregiving for others
– if we love , we care-give; who have we cared for
– a helping hand, our profession; where does our ‘work’ go into the world?
– what hand where you dealt? How have you played it out in your life?
– the helpers; the people who have helped us. Who do we miss, honour, appreciate?
Exercise: “Doodle then Noodle”
Slowly draw a line, fill a blank sheet of page.
Use this as a ‘tool’ when you need to feel calm
Breath deep, try to fill the whole page with your line doodle
Now find three shapes that remind you of ‘your person’: Someone you love, and perhaps is lost to you for one reason or another?
Is it your sibling, alive or who has died, another loved one, a soul sister/brother, cousin? An estranged friend?
Use a bold line to trace around the shapes that speak to you.
Now use the three shapes found earlier to ‘show and tell’ about your person, your relationship, where you are in your life right now.
If you were to share your story, you’re invited to use various ways to share; symbols, senses, songs, shapes, scenes.
Make notes and continue to the next exercise.
On another blank paper, create four panels to share your story. Use the following labels for each of the four panels to help prompt your images or words:
Missing, Navigating, Continuing and Resourcing
1. Missing
– the parts of your person you miss
– Are there other symbols that speak to you: a heart, candle, feather?
2. Navigating
– how do you make your way in the world now?
– how do you move along in your grief, in life?
3. Continuing Bonds
-Your relationship continues, your love for them is still there.
-Where do you ‘feel’ them in nature? What song or lyric speaks to you about them?
4. Resources:
-Where do you find your support elsewhere?
-How can you share your own resources, your learning, ripple in the world?
-Your own sketchbook or journal, a small book to carry with you
If you would like to share your work, please use the hashtag #DrawingTogetherGM on social media.
Resources Earla shares with us within the area of adult sibling grief:
1. The Empty Room: Understanding Sibling Loss by Elizabeth DeVita-Rayburn has a chapter on the historical viewpoint of sibling grief and disenfranchisement of grief in general
2. Earla’s Instagram is SiblingGriefBuds: #siblinggriefbudscreate🌱 Use hashtags such as #peersupport to find your kind of support
3. Hospice support groups – look within your community’s bereavement resources or create your own sibling-specific peer support group. Ask Earla for info.
5. The Compassionate Friends (TCF) has a weekly list of sibling specific links to online peer support. For an invite, write to tcfsibs@compassionatefriends.org
6. Surviving Sibling Loss Podcast – Christal interviewed Earla about her sister
7. Where’s the Grief Podcast – Jordon Ferber’s conversations with guest about grief are both entertaining and enlightening https://wheresthegrief.libsyn.com
Leave a Comment