What is Seeking Out Light/SOL all about?
Seeking Out Light/SOL is actually two things: a web site and a publication.
The web site for SOL is a place where people who are experiencing grief, loss or a transition, can come and be 'witnessed' or witness others by sharing their stories about their loss and reading other seekers stories in transition. It is a gathering place and a community. I invite you to explore the web site.
It is my belief that the process of actually journaling grief and loss stories is healing. It gets the intangible feelings out of the body and onto a piece of paper (or computer monitor), where it can be 1) tangibly examined by the writer as a reality and 2) exposed to the witnessing of others. Since a key value of Seeking Out Light is about WITNESSING and BEING WITNESSED, I need both kinds of seekers to fulfill my mission.
The quarterly, letter-size, 12 page or greater, newsletter publication is educational. It contains interviews and the nitty gritty of 'how to recover', 'what to expect', and explains in layman terms (not psycho babble) the how to's, as well as the exceptionally beautiful transition stories. A free sample issue is below as a pdf (click on the picture of the Hawk).
There is also an area of the web site (Members Only) where subscribers of the print publication can read further and have access to additional stories, special offers, artwork and more. There is a small fee for the print journal that covers the cost of it's production and mailing. Without the subscriptions, I could not afford to help people who are in transition.
Explore the web site and if it has been helpful to you, please consider subscribing to the publication. A gift subscription makes a wonderful gift to someone you care about who is grieving.
May 8, 2007
Greetings Gentle Seekers,
I can breathe again, barely. Now the
waiting begins.
This first week of May 2007, approximately
45,000 complimentary copies of Seeking Out Light/SOL
were mailed off to addresses all across the United
States, to just about every little nook and cranny
I could find. Grief Centers and counselors, Hospices
and Retreats made up less than half of the list, the
remainder were individuals who had expressed interest
in a similar organization. It has been a long journey
to start SOL, one that has been a calling for me.
Seeking Out Light will hopefully support
itself through its' subscriptions. If you do the math
alone on just the postage, I have a long way to go
and each and every subscription is important to the
overall health of the journal. Of course, I encourage
you to subscribe and participate in the community
of this web site.
Seeking Out Light was entirely financed
by a loan I secured against my home. I am not well
off, nor am I living in poverty. I consider myself
an average citizen, living in an average home, in
a shoreline community in Connecticut. I am a single
mother of 2 teenagers and work on SOL in my home office.
I wear another hat as a graphic designer during the
daylight hours, but my passion is in the evening when
I have the quiet time to work on SOL.
As I shared above, SOL is a calling.
I never set out to have another business, but through
a series of coincidences, the idea of it became more
appealing. The story of it's naming alone will lend
some credibility to what I refer to calling and coincidence.
During a difficult transition of my
own a couple of years ago, I volunteered my graphic
design services to a local grief organization. Through
that service, I learned a lot about loss and transition.
There had been some mention of doing a nationwide
newsletter on Loss, but the funds were certainly not
there to support continuing the concept beyond a statement
of 'wouldn't it be nice if some day if....' But creative
people don't need much more than a suggestion before
the visuals start simmering in their heads.
The original name of the publication
came to me as 'Sorting Out Loss' because that was
the intent of the publication, and we all know that
the clearer the name/image the less explaining you
have to do inside. Anyone seeing a publication called
'Sorting Out Loss' would know instantly what its'
content was. In playing around the creating a logo
for it, I realized that its' initials were SOL, pronounced
as soul. Holy smoke, that's what sorting out loss
is about—soul work!
Sol also mean sun in spanish. Sun
is light. Light is a needed element for soul. I was
concerned that if I called SOL Sorting Out Loss, it
might be perceived by some to be a doom and gloom
type magazine, when everyone is singing the blues.
That is not very positive, nor enlightening. So I
continued searching for another way to say it. That
took about 10 seconds. Once I realized the the 'L'
could be light, the seeking came in a fraction of
a second. Seeking Out Light. SOL, Soul, Light, Loss.
Once I realized that I was including Light, the stylized
letters became flames and I worked those letters until
they were both readable, yet subtle.
In addition to being a graphic designer,
I am a fine artist. I paint in watercolors. It has
always been my choice medium. While being a mother
and business owner doesn't give me a whole lot of
'down' time, when I am depressed and need some time
to think, painting is a natural choice for me. Being
a painter and a creative individual, I tend to look
at visual life in shadows and light, color and shape.
Two summers ago, a friend took a picture
of a Cooper hawk that landed in a tree outside her
window. She sent me the photo. One of the first things
I noticed was that the feathers in the breast of the
hawk are tear shaped. While the total concept of SOL
had not been shaped as yet, I realized that I HAD
to paint the image with the feathers morphing into
tear drops. If you look closely at the cover, starting
in the breast of the bird, you will see the drops
begin to form, and drip off the bird. I have other,
similar concepts for each future cover. Hopefully
there will always be a surprise in the form of my
watercolor covers.
Please subscribe to this venture!
Feel free to pass the web site information on to others
seekers or those in the midst of a loss or transition.
A link to download the pdf version (Acrobat Reader
required) of the Seeking Out Light/SOL publication
(the complimentary issue is 6 pages) is embedded in
the picture of the cover below and on the subscribe page.
Welcome and may you find your blessings
among this community.
Lynn
Click cover for a complimentary issue - Adobe
Acrobat Required
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800 Village Walk, PMB 261
Guilford, CT 06437
www.seekingoutlight.com
email for sharing original stories
and poetry:
email for all other business:
Lynn@seekingoutlight.com
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