∞ WELCOMING THE MEDICINE OF GRIEF THE MEDICINE OF WE ∞
“There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken, a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable. There is a sorrow beyond all grief which leads to joy and a fragility out of whose depths emerges strength.”
~ Rashani Réa
about
The Art of Grief Tending
As we collectively and individually face the increasing realms of loss, crisis, war, separation on our inter-connected planet, how on earth are we supposed to stay sane & human?
Stay soft in the heart?
Stay flexible in the mind?
Stay vigilant in the soul?
Stay resourced in the body?
The art of Grief Tending is calling us back to wholeness, community, re-connecting & mending what has been lost and broken.
Grieving is a form of Protest & an act of Love
Our grief and our love are so deeply intertwined, and yet, in most modern cultural landscapes, we are left carrying these dynamic forces in isolation & solitude: especially with the increase of polarity, separation, & lack of communal spaces to feel, attune, release, together.
And yet, (most likely) BECAUSE of the poly-crisis’ surrounding us, there is a beckoning call of more and more humans understanding the vacum and the need to create these spaces, these cultures-of-care: perhpas what we are really longing for is not the newest gadget, but to really feel the deep release of long-held grief, to feel the smell of the earth after rain, to taste the song of forgiveness, to dance like it’s the end of the world (because, hey, maybe it is :))
Soul Nourishment for the entire Web of Life
These times are like Olympic-training for the human spirit, and there is a DEEP call for more authentic forms of communal grief-tending and collective-healing…we were not meant to carry this alone, and yet, in modern-western life, functioning over feeling is the dominant value…and yet, the cracks are calling us…and we need the witnessing of others (in human and non-human form) to really move the many layers & textures of grief we are holding.
We are entering territories of collective/individual-crisis that are clearly breaking us: and whether these intense currents break us OPEN or break us DOWN is the prayer we must tend to, for ourselves and for others.
Our communal grief is a medicine that is calling us deeper into the cracks: to feel, to heal, to transform.
about
My Path with Grief Tending
In all honesty, I do not feel that one can consciously say one chooses the path of Grief Tending: rather I feel I’ve been “broken open” into working with grief, especially the past few years. I do believe the global-Pandemic has been very influential in my own personal path, but has also created a crack in our collective-consciousness–revealing the growing cracks in our collective-field–revealing all that is no longer supportive of Life.
My calling with Grief Work started decades ago, but specifically since the famous 2020 Pandemic, Grief Lineages have been beckoning me further: working with Bayo Akomolafe first tickled my Grief Muscle, discovering Joanna Macy’s The Work that Re-connects” massaged it further, and between 2023-2024 I studied with Francis Weller, in his “Entering the Healing Ground” Grief Tending Faciltation Course. A true honor to work with such elders and lineage keepers.
Grief tending is becoming more and more the axis of my work & calling: especially through weaving the spectrum between grief, celebration ritual and embodiment, as resources to not just “get through” these times, but to have these times marinate our beings, shape our inner/outer cultures, and give us life-force back…I’m marinating on how to offer this medicine and these spaces…I truly bow to all of the souls that are feeling called to gather our broken open human hearts together right now: it might just be the most important work right now in maintaining both our sanity and our humanity, in service to the generations to come.
Photo Credit: Maximiliane Wittek
Finally on my way to yes
I bump into
all the places
where I said no
to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one
close to my heart
and I say holy,
holy.
By Pesha Gertler
Grief, in white modernity is treated as a taboo. Most of us are expected to face it alone, to navigate its depths in isolation, and/or get it over and done with quickly, so we can get back to functioning & producing.
Gratefully, many cultures around the world have long standing traditions of communal grief where mourning is shared and witnessed within the community. These practices recognize grief as a collective experience rather than an individual one, allowing people to process their emotions together. The cracks of Modernity are calling us to revive and rekindle this deep human longing to share, honor and release our grief together.
In this Grief Rave, we’ll gather together in ritual space – a provocation to embrace our grief, to dance with it, to let it take whatever shape or form it desires. It’s a space where we honor both the past and the present, where we move not just to celebrate, but to release, to mourn, to remember. The rave invites us to return to the communal act of feeling together, and in doing so, is a contribution to all that is being composted & planted.
Connect - Vibe - Love
