Just want to say that we've been really happy to have so many people visiting and beginning to share stories here over the past week...

Now that we're a week in and finding our feet, we're looking for your input...what do YOU want or need from Glow in the Woods? What are your expectations for a shared site like this? What - if anything - would make you feel less alone in your grief? What kinds of commonality and interaction with other posters are you hoping for, or comfortable with?

Basically, keeping in mind that this is nobody's full time job, what kind of community would we all like to work towards?

This space will likely be, in a sense, a living thing...no irony intended. The six of us blogging here are keen to continue with our own posts/reflections, and will keep collecting reference materials and relevant articles...but we think this space for discussion really matters in terms of the site becoming an actual, interactive community.

So...got ideas about how we (and i mean ALL of us who might want to come here) can foster a supportive, contributory environment?

Listening.:)

that would actually be quite cool, to have the capacity to reply to comments with a visual cue rather than just by using someone's name. i know that most blogging software doesn't allow for that, though...thanks for looking into it, Kate.

for me, i've really found it cool to have the different topics sprouting up here in the discussion this past week, contributed from all over...with responses from all over. i'd really encourage people to make this space as much their own as possible...i think the more conversation we have going on, the more support all of us with our different stories are going to find.

i guess the other question that i have, though i'm not entirely sure how to ask it, is do people want to have (and is it possible to have) categories here in the discussion...places for writing about our children, for discussing aspects of grief vs. aspects of healing, etc? or better just to keep it all together and see what evolves organically? i'd be really curious to find out what people feel the need to say and have heard...and also how the space can best be a safe place for saying those things. :)