Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower.

(Gwendolyn Brooks)

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We might also say that words themselves are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower. Words have the power to help or harm. To heal, or hurt. We all have words in our lives that comfort, nourish and sustain us, but we don’t always know what these words are because we may not have captured or gathered them together over the course of our lives.
 

Sometimes when a person is living with dementia they may begin to put together - or they may be supported to put together - a memory box, or scrapbook. But why wait? Why not capture those things that matter most across the course of our lives. Postcards, concert and travel tickets, birthday cards, encouraging notes from colleagues, a scribbled apology, or a prayer.

Comfort Words is a workshop I host based on set of questions reflecting on and beginning to capture the words that matter most. While this might include literature and poetry, it really could be anything from a favourite poem to a ticket stub from a special day. Sometimes we only treasure certain words and experiences afterwards. In the words of Winnie the Pooh, 'We didn't realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.'

 

Comfort Words workshops explore the following areas:

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• What are your comfort words?

• Where have you captured those words?

• Who knows those words matter to you?

• Why not start gathering the words that matter most today. 

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Each workshop participant will receive a Comfort Words bookmark to keep and return to as a reminder to collect the words that matter most.​ If you’d like to find out more about Comfort Words workshops - either in person or online - do drop me a line.

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