04/19/2026
🖤 Grief is present. People sense it right now. Many are afraid or unsure of or unwilling to sit with it, even for short amounts of time. The depth of grief may feel like a well with no bottom. That one will be swallowed, never to resurface. Or it feels so painful one won’t even consider looking at it, and instead cover the feelings and excessively eat, drink, scroll, do drugs, spend money, have s*x, be busy, rage, oppress others, sleep, exercise, work, care for others, etc.
🌎 The earth being also grieves. When we consider all that has happened on her land, to her family - both the other-than-human world and human world - we can know some of the sadness that she holds. When we open to the many stories of the past and the present day that the earth being holds, we can come to know and love her more deeply.
🌱 Viewing the earth being as my body helps to heal me and heal her. I smell, hear, taste, touch, see and feel her in my heart. She holds me while I hold her. The earth is a living being. We are living beings. We can be with each other through our grief. We have the support of the whole earth.
(*I will offer that some people need to seek professional help to process grief, and that is healthy and helpful.)
🦶Yesterday, I attended a grief retreat with folks who have a willingness to be with grief, and be in community around grief. Sitting in a circle with them, held by the earth being, I was moved as circles always have a way of doing.
💚 I wandered out later and sat for more than an hour connecting with this place. I cried, wrote, watched and paid attention. A mixture of gratitude, sadness, love and anger arose in me on this vast and changing landscape of grief.
