A healing space

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Amid the holiday happiness and Christmas cheer, some people just need a place to acknowledge their sadness.

"It may be that space that can hold you in that place where you are," St. Luke's Episcopal Church parishioner and Blue Christmas organizer Kristin Keyes said Friday afternoon.

St. Luke's is offering a Blue Christmas service of healing and hope at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22 to provide that space to those in the community who are hurting.

"Everybody around you is going to embrace whatever it is that you're feeling," Keyes said. "I think it’s important sometimes to have that place where they can be what they need to be for where they are."

Whether they're struggling in the wake of a death, the absence of a family member, a financial devastation or experiencing seasonal depression, isolation or emotional distress brought on by the commercialization of the Christmas season, anyone who needs this service is welcome.

"It lets people be themselves in their loneliness and grief," Keyes said. "It should feel welcoming and inclusive."

The evening will begin with a meditative labyrinth walk, where guests can take a deep breath and follow a path as they quiet their minds. Guidance is available from Keyes, who is a trained labyrinth facilitator.

She explained that while a maze is designed to "get you lost and confuse you," a labyrinth is designed "to help you find yourself."

"It's a meditative walking path for people to enhance their prayer and relationship with God," Keyes said. "It can be used to help you center yourself, ground yourself, calm yourself down, to process grief or loneliness … It is a singular path that winds into the center. You simply follow the path, no guesswork involved. In the center, that's where you spend time in your meditative state."

The Blue Christmas service is free and will be held from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m., followed by optional Communion from 6:15 to 6:30 p.m. and a light meal of soup, stew, salad and rolls in the parish hall at 6:30 p.m.

It is a Christian service and prayers will be said, but Blue Christmas is open to people of any or no faith.

"I believe this is an important event in North Idaho especially because there are people who are struggling in life right now," Keyes said. "Life is about ups and downs and ebbs and flows, and we have it pretty good up here … but there are a lot of people going through circumstances that they have no control over.

"Some people are struggling to make ends meet, some people become homeless despite their best efforts," she said. "Some people just suffer from depression. They try to be in a holly jolly mood and they just can't do it."

St. Luke's is located at 501 E. Wallace Ave. in Coeur d'Alene.

Info: 208-664-5533