Guidelines for Helping Grieving Children

From Vitas Healthcare:

A hundred years ago death was much more a natural part of a child’s experience. Grandparents often lived with families, so children witnessed them growing older and dying. Modern medicine has made strides in reducing infant and child mortality and has prolonged life expectancy for the elderly, so children witness fewer deaths. More and more elderly die in nursing homes and hospitals, outside the home environment. The exclusion of death from children’s lives requires us to teach them explicitly about death and grief.

In Mourning and Melancholia, Sigmund Freud outlined his belief that young children did not have the capacity to mourn. He believed that only as a child developed into an adolescent did he/she acquire the ego capacity to grieve. More contemporary research has concluded that children do in fact have the capacity to experience and express grief, but it is often more intermittent and drawn out over a longer period of time than with adult grief.[i]

The grieving process helps people heal from their pain. Pain is a natural reaction when we lose someone close, and children are capable of accepting painful reality directly and openly. When adults try to protect children from the pain of loss, it is usually themselves they are trying to protect. The most important thing to remember in helping children cope with the death of a loved one is to allow them to express their grief in their own way and in their own time. It is important not to pressure children to resume their normal activities if they are not ready.

Children tend to have “grief bursts” followed by play and normal activities. Children may not be able to succinctly verbalize what they are feeling and instead may demonstrate their feelings through their behavior and play. They may laugh or play at a time that feels inappropriate to an adult. (Read more.)

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Just Little Things

My dearest God, I pray for this,

That all through life I may find bliss

In little, oft unnoticed things:

The rippling song the river sings;

A cat at play; wee hidden blooms,

The fragrance of their quaint perfumes;

Small tender plants that fade and die;

Each different shade of summer sky;

Fresh swelling buds; dead floating leaves;

The nest some loving robin weaves.

Then, through the years, as I grow old

A joy unknown to fame or gold

Will fill a heart that ever sings

Of pleasure found in little things.

By a Carmelite Nun 

Published with the kind permission of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Rochester, NY

(Artwork: "Spring" by Mark Senior) Share

History of Misconduct

From The Hill:

Comey’s history of misconduct at the FBI has hurt the agency’s reputation and sparked criticism about his credibility from members of both parties. Many lawmakers have pointed to Comey’s contradictory statements and violation of federal protocol as indication that he was unfit to lead the agency. For instance, Comey broke FBI protocol by publicly speaking about ongoing agency investigations. In July 2016, he said the FBI was closing its investigation into Clinton’s emails. The Justice Department was not involved in this decision because unverified documents claimed they had an agreement with the Clinton campaign. Then, right before the 2016 presidential election, Comey announced he was investigating a new batch of Clinton emails, to the surprise of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The announcement caused an uproar among Democrats, who came out in full force against Comey. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said he was “not in the right job,” while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he did “not have confidence in [Comey] any longer.” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Comey had “damaged the institution of law enforcement,” while Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called his actions “appalling.” (Read more.)

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Regaining Your Concentration

From Nathan Bransford:

Like many people, I’ve really grappled with the moral imperative of paying attention to ongoing atrocities vs. tuning out and looking away from time to time. It’s a tricky balance. Stay engaged and stay outraged about the injustices you care about, but take care of yourself too. Honestly, one thing that you notice when you stop paying attention to social media is that the news still finds you. You’re probably not really at risk of being uninformed even if you tune out. I’ve gotten my social media usage down to about a half hour a day, and I’ve cut down on the number of sites I check. (Read more.)

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Visitors to Versailles (1682-1789)

Louis XVI and Benjamin Franklin

 From Apollo:

From the late 17th century until the French Revolution, the court of Versailles received visitors from the rest of France and from abroad, ranging from travellers, princes, and ambassadors, to artists, writers and philosophers. This collaboration between the Palace of Versailles and the Met – the first of its kind – presents evidence of the many different kinds of visitors, their impressions of court, and the receptions they received – in the form of more than 300 examples of portraits and sculptures, costumes and tapestries, and decorative arts. Find out more about the exhibition from the Met’s website. (Read more.)

From WWD:

 Chief among the outfits in the newly opened exhibit is the three-piece suit worn by Benjamin Franklin during his visit to Versailles. The new exhibition at the Fifth Avenue museum also explores the various elements of a visit to the royal residence in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nearly 190 works from The Met, the Palace of Versailles and 50 different lenders are on view through July 29 in the Tisch Galleries. As America’s first ambassador, Franklin was received by Louis XVI in 1778 and won the military support of France. Franklin’s three-piece suit from 1778-79 is on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The Met’s new show will also feature a French silk brocade grande robe à la française, 1775-85, which was believed to have been worn by one of the wives of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf — a well-known textile manufacturer — for her visit with Marie Antoinette, as well as a men’s formal French suit and a women’s riding habit. The exhibition also features furniture, tapestries, carpets, costumes, porcelain, sculpture and more. (Read more.)

From Fashionista:

Although more private portions of the palace itself remained off-limits, Louis XIV made himself and his family widely available to their subjects. Several times a week, the sovereign held a ceremonial "grand couvert" in which the royalty dined before the public, while Louis XIV allowed for visitors to watch him pass through the Hall of Mirrors to attend daily mass. And then there were religious holidays and other special celebrations, which featured fireworks, fountain shows and musical performances that attracted hoards of onlookers. But the "best part of Versailles," wrote traveler Adam Ebert from Frankfurt in 1724, was still "the king himself." (Read more.)

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None Of Our Business

From Matt Walsh:

Mike Pompeo's confirmation hearing took a weird and graphic turn yesterday when Democrat Senator Cory Booker demanded that the Secretary of State-designate express approval of sodomy. Booker did not just solicit Pompeo's views on gay marriage — which would still be irrelevant to the job he was assigned — but specifically interrogated him about his feelings on gay sex. Booker asked if he believes "gay sex is a perversion." When Pompeo didn't answer quickly enough, he asked again. Then he asked again. Anyone who watched the hearings probably wanted to hear about matters related to American diplomacy and national security, but Cory Booker just wanted to discuss sex positions. It was a perfect illustration of the modern Democrat Party and liberalism as a whole. (Read more.)

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Merrywood

Merrywood was the northern Virginia estate of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy's stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss, who was truly like a second father to her and her sister Lee. From Decor to Adore:

This brick and limestone Georgian gem was originally built in 1919. The estate is located just northwest of Washington D.C. and just a few miles away from George Washington’s “Mount Vernon”. The home is 23,000 square feet and includes 9 bedrooms, 11 full bathrooms and both an indoor and outdoor pool. The original estate, with it’s 46 acres, was purchased in the mid 1930’s by Hugh D. Auchincloss II, heir of Standard Oil, and the step-father of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. (Read more.)

I am so enjoying J. Randy Taraborrelli's book Jackie, Janet and Lee.

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Barefoot in the Spring

All winter long I've kept my feet

Laced up in shoes all tight and neat

But now that spring has come at last

I'm going back to nature fast!

I took off my shoes yesterday

And wandered barefoot on my way;

Across the green fields and meadowland,

Down by the river in the sand.

Wee tiny puffs of dust arose

Between my happy wriggling toes

As over the fresh plowed earth I raced

And left my footprints clearly traced.

From now on, when I get the chance,

I'll throw away my shoes and dance ~

For nothing else can make me sing

Like going barefoot in the Spring.

By a Carmelite Nun

Published with the kind permission of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Rochester, NY

(Artwork)

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Communism Causes Poverty

From The New York Post:

Living under communism makes countries poorer and less healthy for decades, according to a landmark new study. Researchers testing historical connections between cultures found that whether a country had been under communism was the biggest factor for those with lower health, income and educational levels. In the first undertaking of its kind, they analyzed the fortunes of 44 countries across Europe and Asia and looked at geography, religion, systems of government and a more intangible quality called “deep cultural ancestry.” (Read more.)

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