Acknowledgement. Healing. New Life

The design is a distinguished symbol which communicates the wearer has experienced "loss" and is dealing with their "grief".

Worn anytime a loss is experienced, the Grieving Pin is a token which acknowledges your memories of a loved one.

The very act of wearing the Grieving Pin is a self-acknowledgment that you are not feeling "normal" or "okay" and that this is quite reasonable.

You need time to grieve.

In Western societies we do not enjoy structured community support as we go about our often isolated lives. The Grieving Pin allows others to recognize your pain at this time and that you need them to bear with you.

The standard GRIEVING PIN is a seeded paper card with a traditional folded black ribbon that is attached by a pin depicting a coin-like emblem with the words:
Remembrance, Healing, Love.

The attached card is very unique. Made of 100% post-consumer recycled junk-mail, the heavy, unfinished, milkweed paper, with embedded wood fibers, provides a natural background for the pin and ribbon.

The left portion of the card contains the flower design. The flower portion has seeds embedded in the paper. The colorful flower portion detaches from the card and is meant to be planted, blossoming into beautiful flowers.

The card, with the pin and ribbon, is kept as a keepsake.

The card & pin serve three distinct purposes in the grieving healing process:

1. Acknowledgement.
The Grieving Pin is given to the immediate family and/or friends of the deceased. This allows the wearer to show others that he/she is going through a very difficult time.
Also, by wearing The Grieving Pin at funerals, visitors can easily identify immediate family and friends, somewhat easing the often awkward situation of locating them.

2. Healing
Wearers of The Grieving Pin notice that it helps bear the pain of their loss, and allows them to focus on the difficult task of dealing with funeral arrangements and getting through the hectic days following their loss. This is a very important part of the healing process.

3. New Life
The Grieving Pin and card, after the funeral, is a keepsake like no other. Much more than the typical remembrance card, it serves as a reminder of the difficult time, yet comforts as it seems to hold the grief within itself. It is a reminder of the new life one faces after a loss.

Unique to The Grieving Pin is the seeded portion of the card. Planting the seeded portion of the card, and watching as new life sprouts from the earth, is an incredible sentiment: Life does go on, and, it can be beautiful once again.

"The Bereaved Are Not Alone..."

"We bereaved are not alone . . . When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne let us think of the great family of the heavy hearted into which our grief has given us entrance, and inevitably we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy. their understanding. Believe when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.

- Helen Keller