12/09/2025
I hope you will take the time to read this:
As many of you know, this fall I attended BlessFest. This year, they added a grief altar. Everyone brought photos and items to represent their grief. A favorite shot of Dad on his boat, mom in her best sweater, a stone a friend gave, a dog's favorite tennis ball.
We assembled it all together and added flowers, greens, and candles.
All weekend people visited. When we were holding hands and singing about belonging, people were smiling at it. Lots of people sang to it, meditated with it, sent gratitude, cried at it, some even napped there. We tucked prayers in it and sat in its light. On the last night, people took their cherished items home and the botanicals and prayers were burned in a sweet fire to release them to heaven and honor our grief.
Part of my Christmas season includes honoring the old ways with 12 days of Yule, of which the winter solstice is a big part. Typically, I celebrate the days before to honor the feminine. The Godesses, Mary, Durga, mother Earth while I start bringing flowers and plants and lighting candles. Then solstice, to honor the turning of the season, the sacred rest of winter, the release of a new year, and the return of light. I often burn a despacho on this day in offering..
The following day is a day of gratitude and one for offering to and honoring the ancestors. It is a day of deep connection and gratitude for relationships and family.
Then on through Christmas and gift giving and such.
This year, I have been called to bring the sweet gift of the grief altar to our community for the Yule season. After some consideration, we decided it should be in the store, for everyone to share and visit if they choose.
We will have a gathering, assemble the altar on the big windowsill behind the counter, light it for the first night, dress some candles for you to take home and light for 12 days to link to our altar, and build a despacho for burning with the flowers at the end.
Please bring an item or a photo to add. (I can scan and print a copy of your photos if youre worried about leaving them). You do not have to attend the event to leave your grief on our altar. Everyone is welcome, and all your grief is acceptable.
I will light the altar each day through yule and sit with it in prayer and ceremony. You can retrieve your items at the end.
I hope you will join us. Please let me know if youre coming so I get enough candles to send home with you.
There is no fee for this event, donations for flowers are welcomed though. There is an event page here for details: Honoring Grief
I hope you come. 🩷
“Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”
Katherine May - Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, 2020.
Peder Mork Monsted - Winter Landscape, 1916.
