When we grieve the loss of our loved one, it is not just emotional. It shakes who we are, and how we live our lives. We sometimes feel as if our spirit or soul were “trembling.” One important part is missing from our life, it changes the entire design of the life we lived for many years. Grief is our way of loving the person we are missing. Living with our grief, may change along our life’s journey.
What we value in life, what makes our life meaningful, are what makes us who we are – these are the spiritual bases of our life but they go through changes. We all have our unique personal ways of expressing grief, and telling our stories about our loved one: “This is our way of staying in touch” in spirit, based on the spiritual aspects of who we are, what we value and believe, and how we express our experience. For some, family customs, religious, or cultural rituals may offer a space and provide a moment of silent reflection and meditation.
Spiritual Aspect of Our Storytelling
We are all made of stories. We have our stories of losses, and we have our own ways of expressing our grief. We may tell our stories differently when we share them with different people, depending on the relationship or where and when we share them. And every time we share our stories and they are heard responded, we may notice something new in our memories or in ourselves.
When we listen to others’ responses and comments, or to their stories, we may find new perspectives or meanings to our own stories. Shared stories may unlock something, tap into a forgotten time or place. Through stories, our understanding and experience of both us and the late loved ones we miss find new aspects or meanings that may nurture relationships with our loved ones. We may even find mutual sharing of stories liberating and healing, by learning to share, listen, and support one another’s stories.
We are open to listen to your experience of grief and to learn from you, regarding what have been helpful and meaningful to you, on such aspects and topics as:
- Spiritual wellness
- Healing process of “becoming whole”
- Family custom, cultural heritage, spiritual, or religious
practice
We welcome you to our safe space of mutual support for all men who grieve. We find inspiration and wisdom in one another to learn how to live well with grief, and to nurture our relationships with our late loved ones – the loved ones who nurtured our lives. This community can be another way of tribute to our late loved ones, whose spirits are never separate from us but within us.
Kei Okada was born in New York and raised in Kanazawa, Japan. An initial plan to study for a year in the U.S. extended to three art schools, followed by four years working with post-modern dancers in New York City’s dance theatres.
His love of language led him to study biblical languages at Union Theological Seminary, where a field education course introduced him to a meaningful vocation in chaplaincy through Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).
He served at NY Presbyterian Cornell Medical Center’s Program for Children with AIDS and later with Housing Works’ Adult Day Health Care programs for the homeless living with HIV. Kei then spent 15.5 years with Visiting Nurse Service of New York and Palliative Care.
He retired at the end of 2021 from his role as Program Manager, End-of-Life Spiritual Care, and is currently writing his first book on facilitating meaningful dialogue with those in the final stages of life.
Kei is a Board-Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) and an Associate of the Columbia University Seminar on Death. As a Christian mystic and artist, he shares and writes in both the U.S. and Japan on end-of-life consciousness and communication, integrating art, spiritual care and medicine.
