Grief Circle as a Form of Activism through Love
Grief inhabits the most vulnerable, deep, and tender places in our hearts... touched by who and how we love and are loved.
When we show up to someone else's grief on purpose, rarely do we go in with fits up. We may have our guard up, but it's more to protect ourselves, than to punch someone else out.
If we can on purpose show up to one another's grief... to our own grief, with the tenderness, empathy, and understanding that is required, what other things can we then show up for in the world with the same love and care?
Things like the environment, the pandemic, income inequality, affordable housing, political instability, journalism, industry norms, fair wages, legislation, conflict, government, and more.
When our structures and systems make space for grief (from the family unit to companies to governments), we make space for so much more.
Death of loved ones experienced by loved ones (literal or figurative) is about love.
Signs of love. Volcanic ash that reminds us of love once experienced.
Grief on its own timeline is... one hundred and four years later, still... eruptions.
When we don't make space for another's grief (I see you struggling at the intersection of your most tender and important relationships), when we don't make space for our own grief (I believe I deserve the same love and care as another), we strip life which precedes death of this love.
And yet, even in all its bigness, grief is not something we can show up to with hurried hands in that specific moment. Isn't it funny how an ear cannot move on its own? It only hangs there. And listens.
But the heart cannot listen without moving.
And yet, even in the slowed pace of that moment, showing up for grief (ours and others) changes generations. Ours, the one above, and those to come. Because it is through generations that we love and are loved from inception, at our most vulnerable, deep, and tender places.
We are all a part of a generation, whether chosen or not. And so:
We are all more intimately and deeply powerful than we know.
And that, is hope to breathe in.
. . .
So, how will you wield your power in love?
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