So often we feel like we have to tend grief in isolation, and this gathering is an opportunity to practice tending our grief in the presence of others. Grief can feel immense and isolating, or even out of reach. We are creating a sacred gathering space to help each other practice meeting grief with compassion and skillfulness.
At this gathering we will settle in together through a welcoming meditation, poem, song, or guided somatic practice. Then we will reflect on group intentions and offer a framework and context for tending grief in community. After that, we will invite everyone into a 30-45 minute time for individual grief tending supported by a gentle sound bath. This tending may take many forms such as contemplation, movement, writing, drawing, meditating, etc. This is not a space where we will ask for group sharing, rather we will be together as we take our own inner journeys. The circle will wrap-up with a closing practice followed by time for optional tea and connection.
"There is really only one way to restore a world that is dying and in disrepair: to make beauty where ugliness has set in...The beauty I'm referring to is metabolized grief. It includes brokenness and fallibility, and in doing so, conveys for us something deliciously real...When we come into contact with this kind of beauty, it serves as a medicine for the brokenness in ourselves, which then gives us the courage to live in greater intimacy with the world's wounds." - Toko-pa Turner, Belonging
Within this container we aspire to:
remember the practice of grieving together in community
dissolve cultural and social stigmas around grief and reclaim it as a gift
uphold grief as sacred and part of our wholeness, a partner to joy
keep the physical and energetic pathway to grief open, clear and illuminated
deepen emotional intelligence and resilience
build collective capacity to connect with each other and the wider world
Into this space we invite:
all of the ways that grief might show up -- numbness, tears, anger, despair, disconnection, apathy, overwhelm, pain in the body, guilt, confusion, avoidance, anxiety, etc.
those who are seeking a way to be held in community with their grief
those who feel stuck and alone in their grief
those who are looking for a new way to be in relationship with grief
those want to gain trust in themselves to be with the immensity of grief in contained, safe, supported ways
those who want to tend grief as a pathway to deeper aliveness
Cost: this gathering is grant funded and free to attend. A donation to the Conservancy is welcomed and appreciated.
Facilitators: Shay Vetterman is a massage therapist and energy practitioner in Milwaukee. Through her own grief journey, she found access to deeper layers of her heart that she had been long searching for. She continues to be inspired by the ways grief can open us to life, and has sought training in various modalities so that she can be a compassionate companion to those walking this path. You can learn more about Shay and her work by visiting her website.
Emma Koeppel works in community spaces to weave song, ritual, connection, and emergence. Her journey with grief led her to be deeply curious about ancestral lineage and ancestral grief, and about how we all carry threads of collective grief that expand beyond our individual lives. Connecting with grief in this way has helped her feel embedded into a wider web of kinship, return more aliveness to her body and heart, and feel more at home in her life. You can learn more about Emma and her work by visiting her website.
The sound bath will be offered by Morning Malsom and Tyler Derouin of Sound Sanctuary MKE