Merryn Tenalach

Merryn Tenalach Walker of the between spaces. Living life in deep relationship with nature and unseen landscapes.

I offer grief tending, death doula support, sacred ceremonies, person centred funerals and nurturing retreat days.

At the barrow today, where the earth curves in its ancient remembering and the air always seems to carry more than the v...
05/06/2026

At the barrow today, where the earth curves in its ancient remembering and the air always seems to carry more than the visible, a lapwing came to meet me, or perhaps I came to meet it, which is often the quieter truth of these things.

I saw it first as movement rather than form, a shifting in the field of vision, a soft dark wing against the pale stretch of sky, and then it revealed itself more fully, that distinctive, lilting body, crested and sure, belonging entirely to this place of edge and openness, and I found myself stilling, as though something in me recognised the moment before my mind had the chance to name it.

…

You can read more by joining me over on my Substack. Link is in my bio 👌🏻

It’s been a little while since I shared my last list and that’s because there is absolutely nothing linear about this he...
05/06/2026

It’s been a little while since I shared my last list and that’s because there is absolutely nothing linear about this healing process.

I’m nearly 7 weeks post hysterectomy, I either have another infection or the infection I’ve had is not budging and this past week, the grief has hit hard.

Here’s some wonderful things people have said to contrast some of the awful things I’ve already shared.

I found these pictures on my old computer and they both made me giggle and reminded me of a time that was so freaking in...
05/06/2026

I found these pictures on my old computer and they both made me giggle and reminded me of a time that was so freaking intense!

This was me, writing my book GUIDED, in 2022 in a co-working office I rented a small walk from home so I could cram in ten hours writing a week in peace away from toddler demands and household chores.

The day after I took these photos, the office closed, the money I’d crowdfunded to pay for the rental was gone and I had to go back to my desk in the corner of my bedroom and wipe butts in between pouring my soul out onto the pages with my words.

Intense.

I look back now and I’m so proud of her. The mama to three children under 7, two of which were under 3 getting her words out onto paper because she knew that the world needed them.

A year later I rewrote that book pretty much in its entirety. I discovered my writing style and just two months before it went to print I decided to rewrite nearly everything.

Four years later, I’ve sold 246 copies of GUIDED and the sales are still trickling in. It’s a beautiful piece of art that I will forever cherish.

Click the link in my bio to purchase your copy 🙏🏻

I Want to Be Your Priority I think one of the deepest human longings is not simply to be loved, but to feel considered.T...
08/05/2026

I Want to Be Your Priority

I think one of the deepest human longings is not simply to be loved, but to feel considered.

To feel ourselves held in someone’s mind with care. Not as an afterthought. Not as something they return to when everything else is done. But as something precious enough to make room for.

This poem came from the ache of that realisation. The understanding that wanting tenderness, consistency, effort, and presence does not make us needy. It makes us human.

Love is built in the small turnings toward one another. In remembering. In prioritising each other in quiet ways, again and again.

And I think many of us are carrying grief around how rarely we truly feel chosen.

There are moments in life that do not simply pass through us, they remake us.Initiatory seasons are strange things. One ...
08/05/2026

There are moments in life that do not simply pass through us, they remake us.

Initiatory seasons are strange things. One moment you are on your knees in grief, rage, exhaustion, loneliness, staring into the rawness of your own humanity, and the next you are overwhelmed by beauty so immense it feels holy to still be alive inside it.

I am learning, once again, that transformation is not linear. It is tidal. Violent. Tender. It strips you bare and then hands you back to yourself in pieces you must learn to love differently.

Right now I am journeying through all of it. The highs that crack my heart open with gratitude. The lows that ask me to sit beside parts of myself I would rather outrun. The tenderness. The fear. The becoming.

There is no clean version of initiation. No polished ascent into wisdom. Only the aching, breathtaking work of staying present while one life ends beneath your feet and another quietly begins breathing through your bones.

And maybe this is what it means to truly live.

To let yourself be altered.

Photos:
1. Convincing myself I was well my doing my hair and getting in the car to go to my in laws for dinner. (I was not well and was violently sick once I returned home!)
2. Cushioning my empty womb space from the seatbelt and bracing for the bumpy journey
3. Celebrating the end of injecting myself into my sore, bruised tummy with anti-coagulants
4. Finding a teeny cracked open shell on the floor and deeply feeling the metaphor of how I felt cracked open in that moment too
5. The baby rabbit my cat brought into my bedroom alive and then killed under my bed. I sobbed, roared with grief and held it gently as it passed on my chest.
6. Recorded a video saying I could feel the rebirth coming only to be side swiped a few hours later and be back in hospital the following morning
7. Back in hospital where I desperately did not want to be!
8. The only thing in my hospital room was a clock that ticked out of rhythm. Literally watching the time pass was quite something at the two week post-surgery mark.
9. Breakfast from my husband that made me laugh so much I cried in pain
10. Gorgeous kitty companion 🥰

I have a small handful of really wonderful and supportive things that people have said to me during this time. I will be...
07/05/2026

I have a small handful of really wonderful and supportive things that people have said to me during this time. I will be sharing those too!

For now, please please reflect. Whether you’re a doctor, nurse, someone’s friend or family member, consider how hurtful it is to hear some of these things and how heartbreaking it is to hear something like this and then be told to find gratitude!

If one more person asks me what I’m learning, tells me to be grateful or suggests a deep breath is going to solve everything, I’m going to lose it!

On behalf of everyone who never got to share the truth of this life transition, I’m here sharing for us all. Am I too angry for you, jog on! Am I triggering? Good! I’m done with placating. I’m done with making people feel comfortable, keeping quiet to keep the peace.

24 hours apart. Yesterday afternoon I recorded a video…”I’m near the rebirth”, I said. I’m trying to find the trust that...
05/05/2026

24 hours apart.

Yesterday afternoon I recorded a video…”I’m near the rebirth”, I said. I’m trying to find the trust that that is still the case because today, 14 days post hysterectomy, I feel far far away. There’s emotions bubbling under the surface. Lament is one of my only allies right now. Thank goodness for my professional training, thank goodness for my faith, thank goodness for my life experience that tell me that, not only will I get through this, I will evolve and grow.

But right now, I’m sad, I’m lonely, I’m grieving and my world is changing exponentially.

03/05/2026

Part 2 of my brand new poem ‘Where the F are you?’. Not my normal poetic prose, instead a passionate sharing from the threshold, from the pain, from beyond me and into the collective grief that’s being brought to me over and over as I journey through my own grief 12 days post hysterectomy.

03/05/2026

There’s a collective anger brewing, blood boiling, heart racing, a pull to absolute upheaval, a breakdown of old, heartless ways.

I’ve had more lucid hours over the past two days, 12 days post hysterectomy, 12 days of pain, of discomfort, of being confronted with my inner turmoil and the world’s inner turmoil. The voices are loud. The change has to happen. The discomfort comes first, the grief comes first, the anger spilling out in all directions.

I’m grateful for the non-f**kery, that’s a new word, I’m grateful for the rumblings of break-this-sh*t-down, I’m grateful for the unfiltered rolling of passion coming through me.

If you don’t like this, scroll on by, if you can stand firm then listen to the call, listen to the urgency.

I am recruiting volunteers for Shropshire Grief Tending CIC. We are presently looking for 2 volunteers to run our Telfor...
27/02/2026

I am recruiting volunteers for Shropshire Grief Tending CIC. We are presently looking for 2 volunteers to run our Telford (Leegomery) Grief Cafe and 1 volunteer to support in the running of Ludlow Grief Cafe.

Full training is given but skills in deep listening is essential. We ask for 1.5 hours per month commitment to run the grief cafe itself which are both on a Monday and additional time as and when needed to debrief and for social gatherings to maintain moral within the team.

If you think this may be for you, please email [email protected] and we can book in a Zoom call or a coffee

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Moss Farm, Lower Road, Harmer Hill
Shrewsbury
SY43QX

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