on grief embodied | Fall-Winter 2021
As we approach winter, I’ve been noticing in myself a sediment of feelings and uprising of old memories. Winter is a tender time of dormancy that’s inclined to bring with it a sense of pining and grief. It’s why we feel so compelled this time of year to raise our spirits with song, celebration and connection.
Lately, what I am finding myself curious about is: What would happen if grief was allowed to be the embodied paradox that it is? What if we lingered in that self-exposing stillness?
Grief coexists with joy and gratitude. Grief can present as other emotions outside of the deep, temporal sadness we’ve been taught to expect it to be. Grief asks for both space and to be held. It’s a knowing and also unknowing, a nonlinear path we will forever weave in and out of.
This season between the traditional Irish holy days of Samhain (SOW-uhn; the end of the harvest and beginning of Winter) and Imbolc (the early beginnings of Spring) is believed to be a time when we are closest to our grief and ancestors. What happens if we choose to sit within that in-between place with openness and care? How might our bodies find healing in the acceptance of our grief in all its forms?
In navigating what this might look like for you individually, you might choose to explore the following resources as support along the way:
Somatic Movement; a way of paying attention to how your body wants to instinctively move through feelings and memory, and then letting it!
Irish Song playlist or any other music that helps you feel connected with your specific places of origin (this is just mine)
Reading Lists and Plant Medicine by Catelynn Hendrick (A Tethered God) for all things grief, connection, and healing
“I am not sure how or when I began my apprenticeship with sorrow. I do know that it was my gateway back into the breathing and animate world. It was through the dark waters of grief that I came to touch my unlived life, by at last unleashing tears I had never shed for the losses of the world. Grief led me back into a world that was vivid and radiant. There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness, some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive.”
T W O %
September through October, I donated 2% of my profits to the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network.
In the spirit of supporting and honoring indigenous healing, November and December’s two percent will go to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. Through their policy and social change advocacy, CSVANW works to find community-based solutions to violence against native women and children.
Click through for my therapy resource list including books, podcasts, and other supportive modes. The practitioner directory below is a compilation of health providers, if you’re ever looking for a specific referral to add to your web of care.
Over this winter I wish you peace and joy, and, if you choose to lean into that wild stillness, that you may find a warmth of connection and expansiveness there that holds you throughout these darkest days.
with gratitude,
Zoey
photo by nikita gross