A new beginning

"Why grief, fear, and despair? Certainly there are other emotions we call “negative.” Envy, guilt, shame, and anger, among others, account for a great deal of human suffering. But in my thirty years as a psychotherapist, I’ve come to believe that the inability to bear the core triad of grief, fear, and despair is the source of much of our individual and collective emotional ills." — Miriam Greenspan, Healing through the Dark Emotions 

I wish we could share more of our true self. 

Instead, we live in the shadows.

It's conjecture I know but perhaps there's a reason; namely, dealing with repressed grief. Not just the grief that enters stage left on the passing of a loved one but all those things in our life that we've never come to terms with; and I include in that the death of mother earth and the pandemic, which I know contorts so many souls.

What am I advocating for?

Space, openness and a way to show all of our humanness without being torn asunder.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure (in practice) how this might work but, right now, I'm starting to tentatively reach out to a few people to explore our literacy around grief, death and coming alive to true self. I've no formula, less still a programme to offer and am absolutely not selling anything. Instead, I'd like to invite a question that can't be annihilated on the anvil of our desire to cross the Rubicon between where we are and where we wish to be. This is something I've written and spoken about before and if you've the time you may want to watch the first few minutes of Stephen Jenkinson's talk below, which elucidates the point about question-making so beautifully. 

In the end, how we choose to embrace grief though is personal and to many sacrosanct, but if I could find a way of making the connection through conversation, listening and even a modern-day ceremony, then that's something that requires more than a passing few words here or elsewhere.

Much more work to be done.

Blessings, 

Julian