30/08/2023
Well, hello beloved friends! I do hope that you have found yourself some beauty and solace this summer! I continue to do work behind the scenes unseen as yet on this page creating courses and resources! It has been an interesting summer! I have to say I have missed all of you but you have been in my heart nonetheless.
I may be one of a small handful that get very excited when she comes across services to assist in the grieving process! Aside from this perhaps being somewhat unusual and a bit humorous in that vein, it is a deeply significant piece to me.
Loss, be it obvious or more subtle is an ever-present aspect of life and I personally have not known a life without loss.
My great grandmother’s funeral was the first memory I have of observing the various ways deemed appropriate to express grief and deal with loss.
I wonder if you could imagine my 4 year old confusion when I sat close to my Mom in the basement of the church, being as quiet as I knew how, while beside me sat an unfamiliar middle aged woman dressed all in black crying and whaling loudly as she rocked back and forth…while simultaneously on the other side of me, a handful of other people stood pouring coffee and talking about various topics like the weather and catching up on recent events. Some laughing in their own conversation, some giving side glances at the desserts or the whaling lady to my right. Neither in any specific order.
This memory was a very pure example of how we grieve, and I will remember this for a lifetime as it introduced me to grief and the observation that people need to have the space to grieve authentically and we all do it in our own way.
As I grew from childhood and moved through the decades, my understanding of the depth and significance that our grief and losses hold deepened and life taught me that grief can act in an almost a formative manner, in spite of your age.
My personal experience and depth of respect for grief has been divinely sculpted at a profoundly consistent rate as I like many have experienced losses on many levels. Be this the loss of my ability to walk which I worked on reestablishing for years on end, the loss of dear friends, the loss of my child, the loss of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, the loss of my father or the loss of innumerable relationships of various significance. Loss just is…so this list could go on and on.
Although each of these losses are part of my personal journey and hold different significance in the story of my life, they nonetheless each taught me that loss leads to grief, and grief is a container we experience that allows us a view of life that cannot be uncovered from any other angle. This container holds a space in the present that alters our perspective of everything that came before and all that will come after. In this way, I honour grief, as painful as it is, to be a valuable part of our personal interpretation of our lives, what life means to us and our spiritual evolution.
Grief supported holistically can be truly transformative. May aspect of our being be this physical, mental, emotional or spiritual each respond to our grieving process. Taking steps to honour these interconnected parts of ourselves is powerful when done at our own pace and with intention.
I feel it is so incredibly empowering to have space held to acknowledge, feel, release and grow forward into our lives as we are impacted by loss. Ultimately growing into ourselves in new ways. This act alone can gently honour you and allow you to accept your own process a little at a time.
For those in the area looking for a space to address the topic of bereavement you may find the below workshop a supportive space to enter. Passing in Peace is hosting this workshop, holding space for this topic to be seen in its natural form with the hopes of supporting people either wanting to understand bereavement or who are seeking education to understand their own process. For more info check the links in the posting below.
For those of you who are not in the area, the services of a death doula can help to fill in additional support as you move through time in your life where loss is eminent or has occurred.💚
Although loss makes us feel profoundly separated from ourselves, that which we have lost and the rest of the world, please know……you are not alone.🕊️
I am hosting an in person Bereavement Workshop, presented by the ROSE education program of the
Thursday October 5th at the Colpoy's Bay Woman's Institute hall at 7pm.
Email or DM to join
passinginpeacegreybruce@gmail.com
This educational workshop will be beneficial to both the bereaved and the non-bereaved. This is not a support group, rather an education opportunity.
Learn how to better support a griever who you care about. If you are a griever yourself we will learn ways to integrate your grief through expression. We will also talk about the misunderstood realities of how traumatic loss by death truly affects people and that it has no time limit for healing.
My mission as a Grief Guide is bridging the gap between those grieving and a society that doesn't allow space for true Grief. So we can all step into transformative healing.
Space is limited. To join simply email passinginpeacegreybruce@gmail.com and you will recieve a confirmation response!
All you need to join is an open mind and an open heart!
"In a death - and grief - avoidant culture, a grieving person becomes the other to whom social structures cannot, and will not, relate - and that avoidance is truly tragic. Contemplating the death of those we love and feeling tremendous grief in the aftermath of doing so brings us face-to-face with what matters. It shows us what it means to be human is to be vulnerable, to suffer, and to risk love."
-Dr. Joanne Cacciatore
