Today is...

[IceWizard]

Good to see you as well ...

Ice

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30 Aug 2017


National Grief Awareness Day



Sometimes even the brightest of days can be dark when the difficulties of life rear their ugly heads. But there is a silver lining to this, there are those that are willing to help us through these darker days. This is all about looking at grief, and raising awareness both of how to cope with grief, and how to help others cope. So look around and offer that helping hand, lend an ear and join us on Grief Awareness Day to show those around us that we are here for them.

History of Grief Awareness Day

To truly understand how to help people, including yourself, cope with grief, sometimes it is best to try and understand exactly what grief is. It is usually in response to the loss of someone or something important in your life. Many times bonds of affection or love exist that make it that much harder to cope with influx of emotions. Yet many of us forget the cognitive, social and philosophical difficulties that can come from losing someone close to us.

Many believe in the five stages of grief, and helping someone go through those stages can be more important than anything during difficult times of grief.

First is the stage of denial, where they do not believe the reason for the grief has even occurred. Just being there during the time they are going through this stage is all that is needed; indeed many people go through this stage when reminded about anything to deal with the grief.

Second is the stage of anger, where the one grieving lashes out at anyone and anything around it. Be careful around those in this stage, as occasionally physical manifestations of grief occur here in very violent forms.

Third is the stage of bargaining, where they are focused more on a belief or what if statements and ideals.

The difficulty with guilt can be a hallmark here, but just being there helps many cope with this.

The fourth stage is depression. This is the moment when they know the grief is real, and it hits them hard. This is not to say they were not depressed before over the situation, but this is when the depression really comes to the forefront. This moment can be very hard to deal with, but helping them by reminding them of the good things can help as much as being there for them. The final stage is acceptance, and this is where they are looking forward, not only back. They will likely never forget, but they will move forward, able to return to normal after a fashion.

These stages are not fully linear; we don’t always go through them once and are done. We can bounce between them for minutes, hours, days or even months. Each person is different, as is their methods of grief and coping with the various stages.


And




Frankenstein Day



The crackle of electricity, and the patter of rain drops on the stone walls and terracotta roof give an eerie feeling when combined with the dank laboratory that houses various experiments. Give yourself a bit of liquid courage, and step forward to embrace a little bit of darkness in Frankenstein Day.

History of Frankenstein Day

Despite the gloomy weather and almost horrific atmosphere, the experiment comes to life after bolt of lightning is directed through the body of the stitched together cadaver. This experiment was done to imbue life into the cadaver, and worked. Dr Frankenstein, with his knowledge of chemistry and other sciences, created an unknown method to give life to matter that was not living before. This is the first stepping stone to his creating the monster that is called Frankenstein, despite it being referred to in the book as just the Creature. However, on the creation of the creature, the good Doctor Frankenstein is repulsed by his creation, and banishes it as he himself flees. During the course of the novel, the Creature wanders, learns to read, write and speak rather well, learning while hiding near a cottage in the woods from overhearing the speech and reading from some books it had found in the woods. After befriending the blind father of those in the cottage, it is introduced to the family and after being rejected again, it burns the cottage in a fit of rage.

Seeking out the doctor, it finds him, and demands that he make it a bride as it deserves happiness. After assembling the laboratory and a bride for the Creature, Dr Frankenstein destroys the body when he sees the creature watching in a window. Enraged, the creature tells the doctor that he will be there on his wedding night. Fleeing the area, Dr Frankenstein meets up with his intended, and Frankenstein makes plans to defend himself and his betrothed from the creature. Having her stay in their room, he goes out to deal with the creature, only to look up to the window and be mocked with the corpse of his wife.