GHR History and Process

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”

—Hippocrates

 

The idea for the GHR began in March of 2004 when I discussed it with the Veriditas council.  After witnessing our work as labyrinth facilitators after September 11, 2001, and the beautiful work of the Water Labyrinth Project in response to the Tsunami, the time seemed right to initiate the GHR on August 8, 2005—little did I know that the plan would be implemented in three weeks as a response to Hurricane Katrina.

The GHR is a simple plan using the labyrinth in a unified response to promote stress management, grief integration and healing in case of an emergency or disaster.   The idea was to create a plan with clarity and vision before a disaster rather than when everyone is distressed.

In the event of a disaster or emergency labyrinth facilitators will be notified of the implementation via this website, Facebook and the Veriditas list serve. The plan involves four steps:

  • A date for a unified walk
  • A prayer for all to use when walking (A sample follows)
  • A template for a press release and flyer that each facilitator can customize.
  • Finally, facilitators will identify the location and time of their walks via the list serve, this website or Facebook.

The GHR has been successfully implemented on several occasions: Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami, Myanmar Earthquake and floods in China, and Haiti’s Earthquake, Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami, Hurricane Sandy and most recently, the tragedy in Newtown, CT at Sandy Hook elementary.

 Kinship is healing; we are physicians to each other

—Oliver Sachs

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