A program addressing the spiritual dimensions of losing your job, your home, or your business in the global economic melt-down.

In Rock from a Hard Place we create a safe place to tell our stories and explore –

What happened?

Who am I now?Who am I becoming?

How is it changing my relationships with family and friends?

How am I changing my sense of meaning?

How am I changing my relationship with God / Life / Spirit / Soul?

Using a process of reflection, writing, and sharing, we allow the stories, questions, feelings and insights to emerge.

At the end of the program, participants may choose to share their stories, songs, and poems with families and friends and the congregations or group supporting the program.

Created and facilitated by Rev. Mary Grigolia.

Funding: Programs may be self-supporting or sponsored by congregations or community groups. 

Participants are asked to pay a portion of the costs, as a sign of commitment.

Keeping it in perspective: Rock from a Hard Place is designed for 8-32 participants.

Vision for Rock from a Hard Place

“Who are you?” In American culture, we are what we do and we measure our worth by how much money we make. More than any country in the world, we create our sense of identity around how we make money. (This has been especially true for men.) Consequently, losing your job in this economic meltdown is also a loss of identity. This crisis gives us an the opportunity to rethink who we are and what we value, individually and collectively. Those of us most profoundly affected - who have lost a job or home or business - have to address and release the shame, blame, and guilt to move through the grief.

As an individually-focused culture, we tend to see everything as our personal, individual responsibility. This melt down is showing us that our corporations, our communities, our individual sense of meaning, are all woven together.

In Rock from a Hard Place we create a safe place for people most acutely touched by the economic storm to tell their stories and explore the inner dimension of meaning emerging from their transition. The program is made possible through the generosity of congregations and community groups, who are in turn gifted with the stories, needs and insights of those participating.

Even in congregations or community groups committed to social justice, it is difficult to stay motivated when the scope of a crisis is huge; instead, we tend to numb out and then feel guilty that our actions don’t match our values. Good people everywhere are looking for something to do to support folks reeling from this crisis and to address the underlying needs of our system. When we see the faces and hear the stories, the crisis becomes real, our compassion is awakened and we are motivated and able to respond, in keeping with our values and vision for a more just world. Making it real supports us in doing the work of repairing our economic system and our world.

The world-wide economic meltdown is a crisis of values and power; it needs collective response that is compassionate, just, and creative. It needs us to wake up spiritually – to be touched and empowered by one another’s stories so that together we may create a shared story of meaning in our globally-tuned world.

How You Can Be Involved

Recruit participants:

Sign up as a participant if you’ve lost your job or lost your home, or are facing  lay-off or foreclosure

Do you know someone who has lost their job or home? Share this info with them and encourage them to attend.

Are you a clergy person or therapist, with clients who have lost their job or home? Encourage them to attend a program as part of their work with you.

Bring Rock from a Hard Place to your congregation, school, or neighborhood. Send an email to info@rockfromahardplace.com. (or mary@marygrigolia.com).

Tell us about funding: Connect us with grants from corporations or foundation you know, or other creative sources of funding.

Volunteer as a Small Group Facilitator: each session benefits from the presence and skills of group facilitators; requires a 2 hour training session. We welcome facilitators who are not currently going through major transition. Please email us to find out about volunteering.

Volunteer as a Musician: At the conclusion of every program we’ll put words to music. If you play an instrument and this sounds like fun, email us for more info.

Make food for a Rock workshop: Weekend workshops need snacks on Friday and Saturday, and all three meals on Saturday. If you are part of a spiritual study/support group, make a meal as a group.

Help us get the word out: in your newsletters, web-sites, to groups and individuals focusing on social justice and this economic crisis. We will send you blurbs.

Host the program: Weekend programs run Friday evening and all day Saturday (9am-5pm). We’d appreciate your organization’s support in not charging us rent.

Sponsor a participant: We’d love congregations, corporations, schools, small businesses, study/supprt groups and individuals, to sponsor one or more participants, whether or not you know them.

Connect us with your network: If you know of similar programs, please put us in touch with one another so we may learn from each other.

Give us your suggestions: Let us know your suggestions and how you’d like to help!

The larger context: The collapse of the financial system, the housing market, industry, and the service industries and public services supporting it all has resulted in shock waves of unemployment, foreclosures and the collapse of small businesses. It asks us to become responsible - literally, to continue to be able to respond to what is going on - and to examine the assumptions we make about relationships between government and banking, between employers and communities. We get to decide how we will configure our economy – these are huge questions, challenges and opportunities.

Rock from a Hard Place is one piece in a shared ethical and spiritual response to this crisis. By providing a safe structure to dispel the shame from losing a job, home, or business it not only frees up the energy of those directly affected, it also serves to inspire friends, family and the larger community in overcoming numbness and responding to the larger issues before the system finds its way to a new balance, benefitting only those at the top. We have a unique opportunity to create relationships of responsibility between business and government (i.e., the people), between employers and employees.

Let’s share our ideas and breakthroughs!

Wanna read more? Here’s Mary’s Labor Day 2009 sermon with the motivation for ROCK.