There were two couples in particular on our flight that Theresa Antoinetti (the Secretary at the Salvation Army (SA) Church) ended up noticing. The first were an Australian couple called Iain and Julia Campbell. At the time they were living in San Diego. They had their own story of September 11. The public calamity intersected with a private anxiety about their son.

By the time they arrived at the SA, they found out that their son had an abrasion on his foot and it had gotten infected. He was a professional surfer, in Indonesia at the time of this crisis. In their mind, the Campbells were considering the worst possible scenario. Their son risked losing his career with the possibility that he was going to have his leg amputated from the knee down. Would you have noticed them in a crowd…?

Have you ever been in denial?
Would you even know what denial looks like?
Many of you will be aware that there are multiple models that talk about the different stages of grief. One of these models refers to five stages. Does grief always follow the same order of stages? Not always.
This model identifies the five stages of grief as:
1. denial
2. anger
3. bargaining
4. depression
5. acceptance
As you face a crisis, you may very well be drawn down through these five stages of grief. Do not be surprised if you find yourself dwelling at one of those stages for a longer period of time than you have liked to admit. Irrespective of which stage you find yourself at, take the time to reach out to someone, ideally a professional, and seek some counsel and help.

When you get called into the principal’s office at your child’s school, you know it isn’t a good thing. However, having a framework to host a conversation helps create a safe environment for everyone…