REFLECTING ON GRIEF TENDING SPACES

Landing with a soft happy heart following my Sacred Tending grief offering over the weekend. 

So grateful to the dear hearts who attended and entered the space with such courage, openness; respect to each others experience and compassion to all parts of themselves.

It takes courage to acknowledge our grief, sit with these parts of ourselves and even more so to come out into public spaces and sit with grief in community settings. 

I am continuously astounded by the power of this work and the collective magic of people coming together with such intention, willingness and kindness. 

I have been openly transparent about my original desire for these spaces coming from my own need to allow myself to be with the waves of grief and not only sharing the cathartic practices that have supported me to feel and be with my grief, but also the power of having our grief companioned and witnessed. 

It is a fine line as a guide and facilitator how much of me do I bring into a space but the birthing of my grief work has come from my own experiences and carries with it the gems of insight that allow me to hold the space as I do.

I was incredibly intentional about the space, how to set it up and how our time across the three hours would flow. 

The intention for Sacred Tending is for people to receive: to have a sacredly held space for them and their grief - in whatever form and shape it comes in right now, in this season of life. 

Grief is layered and often is asking to be heard, known, seen, felt.

It is my intention for these spaces to be one that allows ourselves spaciousness to be with our grief, and to meet our grief in a way that honours its insights, feeing what wishes to be felt, offering it a space for expression.

Before entering the space, the participants were emailed Sacred Agreements which I then shared again in our opening arrival. 

SACRED AGREEMENTS ~

~ There is no hierarchy in grief. All experiences are valid and we do not compare. 

~ What is there to be felt is worthy of our time and attention. Sometimes grief can show up and we don't know what is there and where it's come from. This is ok. It doesn't have to be cognitively understood. Our gathering is to honour the feelings. 

~ We have this intentional sacred time to be with our grief. The space is held through me and our collective intention. While we are not responsible for someone else’s experience, we come to the space with respect and compassionate non-judgmental lens. 

~ You have agency over how deep or light you go. 

~ During the gathering, there will be space for us to share. You are not required to, this is optional and invitational. I will reiterate this in the moment, but so your system knows: the option to pass is always available. 

With this intention set, we opened the portal and together, we met our grief. 

We resourced our bodies to lean in a little further and allow our grief the space and permission to be acknowledged, felt, expressed.

We moved, we cried, we released, we felt.

We rested.

We processed with different colours, lines, shapes, words on the page and we shared and witnessed one another.

I closed our time together with a final creative practice treat offering a meaningful resource plus a take-home ritual kit.

It is always an honour to meet ourselves and others in such vulnerability, with such depth. It connects us, it is our embodied humanity, it fuels our sense of hope and buoys us forward. 

It is an honour to have envisioned such community spaces for our individual and collective grief and for people to feel the call and come together to companion one another.

Here is a testimonial from one of the participants, Amanda:

“Cathy’s grief workshop was incredibly insightful and helped me explore and express grief in ways that felt accessible, gentle and creative. I wasn’t experiencing any new or major grief at this time, but I knew Cathy’s excellent facilitation skills would invite me into a deeper relationship with grief itself and what lives beyond it and she didn’t disappoint. After the workshop, I’m feeling a lot of clarity, creative energy and forward momentum to work on my business and make a greater impact with my work. Thank you Cathy for sharing your gifts and creating the spaces the collective truly needs.”

I will continue to offer a range of grief offerings both online and in-person in various locations to make this work as accessible and as comfortable as possible. I know the value of the collective and this is felt in the same physical space as well as across the inter webs. 

I look forward to connecting with you there 

With love and in deep gratitude,

Cathy xx