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The Four Seasons at Beaumont Rainbow Group meets occasionally for casual dinners. This allows our LGBT neighbors and friends to socialize, to update each other on what we have been up to and to discuss social issues. We don't plan to meet in October. When scheduled, we gather in the courtyard area outside Smitty's, order dinner and eat on the patio, weather permitting. Should you wish to enjoy your own beverages, please feel free to bring whatever you desire. If you have any suggestions or questions, please call/email Dale at (951) 797-0364 or dale.beckes@ gmail.com. ~ Dale Beckes 36 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | OCTOBER 2016 Rainbow Group Classical Music Club We are classical music lovers with an interest in sharing our love, knowledge, and interest in classical music. We meet on the second Thursday of each month at 7 pm in the Theater. We listen to and watch musical selections on the big screen. Each month we focus on a particular work or several selections of one composer. We also discuss current musical performances in the area. We welcome new members. Contact Steve Benoff at steve.benoff@ verizon.net or (310) 413-4896. ~ Steve Benoff Taste d' Vine Wine Club is excited to present something very different for our October Wine Club Meeting. We are going to present wines with "blind" descriptions and our members will have to match the wines to the tasting notes. Our entertainment guru, Colin Taylor, has come up with this unique evening of wine tasting and I am confident it will prove to be extremely fun and, most of all, entertaining! Please join us at our October meeting on the third Thursday, Oct. 20, 6 pm in the Ballroom for an evening of "Match the Description." Bring an appetizer such as bread or crackers and cheese, your own favorite bottle of wine if you wish, and a glass or two for tasting and sharing. Members $5, guests $10. ~ Gracy Luna Taste d'Vine As I have mentioned in previous months, the Bereavement Group is now ongoing, no longer following a 12 week on four week off schedule. While participants have always varied as to the length of time they have remained in the group, this new format seems to be more inviting to those who wish to remain longer. It seems to be a pattern that fewer people attend the Bereavement Group during the summer. This makes sense since family members are more often on vacation and are more available to be together and to share in the grief process, joining with and helping each other through the wrenching, extremely painful early days of the loss of a cherished loved one. Since this recent group had been together long past the original 12 week curriculum, we were exploring various aspects of the process of dying, including choices available to the patient who may be terminal and the family who may care for their loved one. We were even beginning to look at how various cultures and various religions approach the concept of death and the care of someone who was dying or had died recently. A consequence of this extended time together was that we were all very comfortable with one another, chatting and laughing as we sat down together and frequently just acting as if we were old friends coming together for a visit. And then two new people came in. They were warmly welcomed and invited to share their stories, to tell us what great sadness was bringing them in. And they did. And I outlined our few rules, the most important of which is confidentiality. All of us must feel safe that what is discussed in our group is never repeated outside the walls of the room. All of us adhere to this willingly and conscientiously. For two weeks the group continued on the path we had been forging until it finally occurred to me that the new members were not being given the fundamentals that were the traditional introduction to the Bereavement Group. So I telephoned the new members to apologize and to assure them that we would go back to basics at the next meeting. At our next gathering I shared my concerns that we were acting more like a social group than a bereavement group and that our new members needed more. We all agreed. So we began the original format. Those who had been in the group longer were glad that they could share their experience and could embrace the fundamentals that were helping them heal. And once again, as has been demonstrated over and over, it became obvious that healing does take place. The longer term members could talk about how they used to feel and how they feel now. Of course each person heals differently, and the loss of someone cherished will always affect us, but there was one feeling that was universal among those who had been in the group awhile. That feeling was hope. It is hope that keeps us going, that begins to emerge from the darkness of intense pain, that lets us know that we can have a meaningful life without our loved one. Hope and healing were starkly evident in that meeting. So even though despair is most often what brings people in, it is hope that keeps them, keeps us, going. It is what turned our group into more of a social group than a bereavement group in the first place. If you have lost someone very dear to you and are feeling despairing and hopeless, please think about coming to see us. We meet in the Arts and Crafts room in The Lodge, on Mondays from 1 to 3 pm. You may just drop in or you may contact me first. My phone number is (951) 922-0934 and my email is lauriemlarson425@ gmail.com. All contact is confidential. ~ Laurie Larson Bereavement Group

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