Mourn To Light

I am currently outside Sedona attening a training at the Selah House and carefarm with Dr. Joanne Cacciatore. The theme is "Holding Space and Helping Hearts" This is my 2nd training with Joanne and the privilege is beyond words.

I spoke with a reporter at a major media outlet today about grief and about how our culture fails to understand and validate grief. Rather, we are wildly grief avoidant.

Fear. Fear gets in the way of both love and compassion for grievers.

Certainly nothing breaks us, aches us, and wakes us like grief. But, people, grief is not a pathology to be diagnosed. Loss is not "contagious" so you don't have to run the other way in the grocery store because you won't catch this.

And frankly, the heartbreak we feel when we lose one we deeply love is honest, righteous, and ours to feel. The loneliness that erodes the foundation of our faith in others when they push us, and our grief away, adds so much pain to our grief. That kind of loneliness breaks us and aches us in a different way.

Please, to really help someone who is grieving, you need to lead with love, not fear. Follow your heart, not a manual. Listen to the holiness that underpins grief, the sacred that, when held in unconditional compassion, opens us - and wakes us- to more.

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If you'd like to share your experience here with breaking, aching, and waking, please do. I'll start below.

www.JoanneCacciatore.com

I am aware that summer has truly faded into autumn and I am reminded that through the changes of the seasons, grief takes on different aspects: the senses are newly stimulated, the light has shifted, the anniversary dates become highlighted and we continue to breathe, to feel, and to continue our journey.

Please hold yourself tenderly as you observe the leaves falling and the days shortening.