As shared by Solveig during her time with us, here is the link to the Pacific Northwest Grief Tenders: http://pacifichealingcircles.com/
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"When we are born, and as we pass through childhood, adolescence, and the stages of adulthood, we are designed to anticipate a certain quality of welcome, engagement, touch, and reflection. In short, we expect what our deep-time ancestors experienced as their birthright, namely, the container of the village. We are born expecting a rich and sensuous relationship with the earth and communal rites of celebration, grief, and healing that keep us in connection with the sacred.... This is our inheritance, our birthright, which has been lost and abandoned. The absence of these requirements haunts us, even if we can't give them a name, and we feel their loss as an ache, a vague sadness that settles over us like a fog." -- Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
As we turn the calendar to a new year, to a new decade, we have a new perspective with which to look back over the year, the decade, our lives, the generations. We can take this opportunity to reflect upon what did and did not happen, what we did and did not receive, what was present and what was sorely and painfully absent. In this session (5 of 7), Rev. Solveig Nilsen-Goodin reflected on one of Francis Weller's five Gates of Grief: "What We Expected and Did Not Receive," and we engaged in a practice of seeing with eyes of love as a way of responding to this often unrecognized source of grief in our lives.
Questions for your consideration:
What was it like to be seen and held by a loving village?
What was it like to be part of that village seeing yourself?
How are you cultivating, or how might you cultivate, such a loving village in your own context?
What’s your next most faithful step?
