Why tend our grief?

Grief is an inherent part of being alive and sharing our lives and our love with the world around us. Grief can visit us when we love someone or something we lose, when we face major life transitions or changes, when we feel the heartbreak of a community tragedy or natural disaster, when we see the earth suffering, or through countless other circumstances.

Through all of the ways it might show up, grief consistently shows us where love is alive in our lives. To take care of ourselves in grief is to keep ourselves available for loving. To tend our grief is to keep ourselves open and willing to meet our lives in our fullness.

"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

There are many reasons to come together in community around grief tending. Here are a few:

• to remember the practice of grieving together in community 

• to dissolve cultural and social stigmas around grief and reclaim it as a gift

• to uphold grief as sacred and part of our wholeness, a partner to joy

• to keep the physical and energetic pathway to grief open, clear and illuminated

• to deepen emotional intelligence and resilience 

• to build collective capacity to connect with each other and the wider world

Who is community grief tending for?

• 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

All expressions of grief are welcome in these spaces — numbness, tears, anger, despair, disconnection, apathy, overwhelm, pain in the body, guilt, confusion, avoidance, anxiety, etc.

Grief Support Resources

Coming soon!

Upcoming events:

Tending Our Grief
January 19, 2025 from 2-3:30 pm
Conservancy for Healing and Heritage 
7410 W Rawson Ave, Franklin, WI 53132
Cost: this gathering is grant funded and free to attend. A donation to the Conservancy is welcomed and appreciated
Register here

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.

Past events:

Earth Grief Tending Circle
May 30th, 6-7:30 pm
The Motherhouse
4322 Buckeye Rd, Madison, WI 53716

Together we’ll create a safe community space to gather and share grief for the earth, plants, animals, waters, and for all of us who are bearing witness to change and uncertainty. Tending and metabolizing grief creates more space within us to love, take action, and relate more deeply. If you feel this call too, we hope you’ll join us. Circle time will include song, contemplation, sharing, and ritual. All are welcome, children included!

Earth grief is a broad term that is associated with the many sorrows we are experiencing due to climate change along with a huge and consistent dose of anticipatory grief for the many losses likely to come. We believe that the unprecedented challenges we face personally and collectively make grief tending an essential survival skill. Emma Koeppel and Sharonita Wolfgram will co-facilitate this gathering.

Registration is limited to 20 participants. To promote accessibility, this event is free of charge. You will receive an email confirmation sent from emmackoeppel@gmail.com. All are welcome, feel free to share this invitation with others who may be interested now or in the future. 

Street parking is available across from the house with an accessible entry. The bathroom is not wheelchair accessible. 

Please note, this is not therapy; this is an exploration of grief tending in a community setting; participation is at your own risk.

Register HERE

Earth Grief Tending Circle
May 4th, 1-3 pm
Pulaski Park
1644-1712 W Cleveland Ave, Milwaukee, WI

We’ll gather together to honor and tend the grief of the earth and the grief we each carry for all of our kin who live here with us. Circle time will include song, contemplation, sharing, and ritual.

We’re hoping to create a safe community space to come together and share grief for the earth, for all the plants and animals and waters that are navigating change and uncertainty, and for all of us who are bearing witness to change and uncertainty. Understanding that tending grief creates more space within us to love and take action, and that metabolizing grief frees up our capacity to relate more deeply with everything around us. Hoping to remember how to do this together. If you feel this call too, we hope you’ll join us.

Family friendly – all ages are welcome to circle with us and there is a playground in the park as well. Suggested donation $5-25. All are welcome, no one turned away due to lack of funds.

10% of all funds raised will be donated to the Women and Water Coming Together Symposium: http://www.spiritofthewater.org/