Lookit! I’m on TV!
I had the wonderful fortune to be interviewed by WCNC /
Channel 36,reporter, Bobby Sisk, for my support group called “The Bucket Brigade ” for people who are unemployed or in some type of transition.The article was also featured in 5/23 Charlotte
Observer Business section.
It was a little scary to do and of course when I saw myself on t.v. , I was surprised at how I looked .But it was also fun and exciting and I hope that it will help some of the folks who are stressed and need some support.
It’s the part of being laid off many people don’t expect: the emotional toll it takes to lose one job and then look for another.
That’s where Dr. Jeannie Fennell of tries to help. A psychologist, she started a job support group last November called the Bucket Brigade.
“I realized there was a lot of help for resume writing, but not a lot for what is the stress part and the toll it takes on you physically and emotionally,” she said.
The group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at Julia’s Coffee in the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Wendover Road. At this week’s meeting, six job seekers showed up and talked openly about the emotional process of figuring out what’s next.
“I worked in nonprofit for 12 years,” said 63-year-old Cindy Thomson.
Laid off last April, Thomson says she understood why her agency had to make cuts, but she still felt like she’d been rejected.
“I’m not that far from retirement age, so I say if you’re my age and you get laid off, you might be retired,” she said, laughing.
Thomson has attended the meetings since they started and finds the candid discussions helpful.
“I don’t do well at home by myself. My batteries will run down. I like to be around people so this group really helps,” she said.
Fennell said, “I hope that eventually this group goes away and that we don’t really need this anymore.”
But with more layoffs — this time in county government and schools — she expects the need to increase.
People with Great Courage
“I’m just very, very, very fortunate to be able to do this and be with these people and hear their stories. They are people with great courage,” Fennell said.
Fennell knows the pain of a pink slip firsthand. Before going back to school to get her doctorate in psychology, she worked as a recruiter and in human resources. She has hired and been fired.
“I often say I’ve been the person on both sides of the desk – the person looking for work and the person employed. In fact, when I moved to Charlotte, within about two months of being relocated by a company, I got laid off. I didn’t know anybody and it was really a tough time,” she said.
At each meeting a bucket is placed in the center of the table. Thomson says the message it sends is two-fold.
“One thing is you put doubts and fears and impatience in the bucket and leave it. And with the Bucket Brigade, there’s the analogy of throwing water on a fire and it takes a lot of people to pass the bucket, so we can all communicate with each other and understand what we’re all going through,” she said.
SHIFT Drumming Circle
A group for Women who desire a shift from the routine of everyday life and move towards experiencing the ancient heartbeat of the Earth using drums, rattles, dance, song and heart to heart conversation.
A sacred place to rediscover women’s spirituality and wisdom using rhythm.
No Experience Necessary!
Love Offering Accepted.
UPCOMING DATES: MAY 14TH & JUNE 25
7:00-9:00 pm
Contact me for location.
For 2 years I have hosted a free drumming circle in the summer. This circle is facilitated by Belinda Haverdill, http://www.belindahaverdill.com/ a counselor & a member of Soulo entrepreneur’s group. She wanted to have the drumming be outside and I volunteered my back porch. I’ve enjoyed it a lot & met some great women.
I really appreciate having Belinda organize it and I just get to be a participant; a welcome change of pace for me.
I’m really not a drummer but I like to make noise so I have lots of rattles and other toys to play with. I find it a great way to release stress and have some fun.
Transitions…Endings & Beginnings
ENDINGS, BEGINNINGS & THE SOMETIMES DARK HALLWAYS IN-BETWEN
This month we celebrate Black History month and next month, Women’s History month. So I have been thinking about my own history as an entrepreneur and woman in transition and what it means to me.
I notice that I want to “re-live” the successes of the past and hold on to them as a guide for the future. And even though I know that the times are very different now, I find it challenging to change my thinking about my history and look at the new world I am in.
I want it RIGHT NOW.
Sometimes, what once “was” gets in the way of being in the present. Having to change so quickly is upsetting and I want what was secure. I like beginnings but am not so sure about endings. And I really don’t like the dark hallways in between,
I want things to change and change for the better RIGHT NOW.
The Grief of Endings.
Recently one of my clients brought this type of experience to my attention as she cried over having to close part of her previously successful business. She said she kept thinking of how it used to be and was angry and sad that it is gone and said she could not imagine having to starting again.
I realized that she is going thru a grief process where anger and depression are normal stages and that until that is complete, she cannot move on.
We think of grief as only appropriate when a person dying but when part of our work or any other part of our life ends, it is a great loss …not only the money but the dreams, the security, the sense of safety and the identity.
But in order to have beginnings, we have to have endings so I suggested that she create a ceremony to release her business.She could then honor the tangible as well as the intangibles that her business gave her .It had given her much and it deserved an honoring at the end.
Rituals help us let go
Rituals and ceremony can be very powerful in creating appropriate endings…giving us a way to respect our history and mark an ending while celebrating what was.
She did create a ceremony where she burned some business cards, and other symbols, buried the ashes and then planted flowers there. And yes, she cried but it was cleansing. She said that it was a major step in releasing and going forward. Although grief is a long-term process, she created an ending so she can have a beginning…and her action moved her of out the dark hallway.
Most of us need to do the same in some place in our lives.
And as more of us have to change our work & our lives, it is important and freeing to release the old ways with gratitude and yes, some tears.
In honoring our history, we can appreciate it without it weighing us down.
So if your work or your life has “transitioned”, bless what it gave you and set yourself free to create a new path.
