Thea Berryman, *Jerome Berryman's wife, died last Sunday afternoon in Houston. She had waged a courageous battle with cancer for eight years.
I saw Thea twice at Godly Play trainer gatherings. She was a strikingly beautiful woman. I know she was a dancer and a musician and that she worked with Jerome and the children for years and years. I never had the privilege of knowing her other than through Jerome when he came to Portland as a scholar in residence for a month at our Quaker Meeting. He would often speak of her and of how much he missed her. I have always sensed that she was behind this work of Godly Play and next to Jerome in strong ways.
Please remember Jerome and his family as they journey through this loss.
We want to acknowledge and honor all the ways that she has been a part of birthing and giving Godly Play to us and to the world. We are deeply grateful to you Thea. Thank you.
I invite you to post remembrances or stories of how you have known Thea. I hope many of you will share your experiences with the rest of us.
One of the many great gifts of Godly Play both for children and ourselves is the language it gives us to talk about death and wrestle with this existential issue. Over and over again when I have given the lesson of the Great Family and I ask what part they liked the best, children will be drawn to and talk about Abraham and Sarah's death and their burial in the cave of Machpelah by the Oaks of Mamre. I was unsettled by it at first and then realized it was my own discomfort with death and dying and I have since learned to better receive their response and hold that space for them. One little three year old boy chose that story several times after he had heard it and spent the whole time just burying Abraham and Sarah in the sand. His great grandfather had recently died and my sense is that it was the work he needed to do. We need a languge and we need permission to name and talk and wrestle with these issues. Godly Play gives us that opportunity. It matters that these stories aren't "cleaned up" but include these core issues.
I have been enjoying John O'Donohue's book of blessings. He is one who finds the right words and the right spaces to talk about our existential issues, including death.
I saw Thea twice at Godly Play trainer gatherings. She was a strikingly beautiful woman. I know she was a dancer and a musician and that she worked with Jerome and the children for years and years. I never had the privilege of knowing her other than through Jerome when he came to Portland as a scholar in residence for a month at our Quaker Meeting. He would often speak of her and of how much he missed her. I have always sensed that she was behind this work of Godly Play and next to Jerome in strong ways.
Please remember Jerome and his family as they journey through this loss.
We want to acknowledge and honor all the ways that she has been a part of birthing and giving Godly Play to us and to the world. We are deeply grateful to you Thea. Thank you.
I invite you to post remembrances or stories of how you have known Thea. I hope many of you will share your experiences with the rest of us.
One of the many great gifts of Godly Play both for children and ourselves is the language it gives us to talk about death and wrestle with this existential issue. Over and over again when I have given the lesson of the Great Family and I ask what part they liked the best, children will be drawn to and talk about Abraham and Sarah's death and their burial in the cave of Machpelah by the Oaks of Mamre. I was unsettled by it at first and then realized it was my own discomfort with death and dying and I have since learned to better receive their response and hold that space for them. One little three year old boy chose that story several times after he had heard it and spent the whole time just burying Abraham and Sarah in the sand. His great grandfather had recently died and my sense is that it was the work he needed to do. We need a languge and we need permission to name and talk and wrestle with these issues. Godly Play gives us that opportunity. It matters that these stories aren't "cleaned up" but include these core issues.
I have been enjoying John O'Donohue's book of blessings. He is one who finds the right words and the right spaces to talk about our existential issues, including death.
A poem by John O'Donohue
from his book
To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings:
To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings:
Entering Death
I pray that you will have the blessing
Of being consoled and sure about your death.
.
May you know in your soul
There is no need to be afraid.
.
When your time comes, may you have
Every blessing and strength you need..
.
May there be a beautiful welcome for you
May there be a beautiful welcome for you
In the home you are going to.
.
You are not going somewhere strange,
Merely back to the home you have never left.
.
.
May you live with compassion
And transfigure everything
Negative within and about you.
.
When you come to die,
May it be after a long life.
.
May you be tranquil
Among those who care for you.
.
May your going be sheltered
And your welcome assured.
.
May your soul smile
In the embrace
Of your Anam Cara.
.
.
.
*For those of you new to Godly Play, Jerome Berryman is the founder of Godly Play and has made Godly Play his life's work.
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