simpleandgrounded

How do you meet the suffering of the world? What can one person do to tend our collective grief? Thousands have died in the pandemic over the past year, with no clear end in sight. Even accounting for those with compromised health, there have been countless unnecessary losses. So many deferred funerals and memorials, so many who died alone and afraid. Part of the calling and commitment in ancestral work is to help those who have crossed over to be well received on the other side, well met by their people. We assist in this sacred work by offering prayers for the dead, whether they are known to us by name or not. When we lament the dead and give thanks for the lives they lived, we bear witness to them – we tend the collective grief. Author and grief-walker Francis Weller, refers to grief as a potent form of soul activism. By tending the collective sorrow, we do our part to move it along. We help it dissipate, become compost, find release. Left unmetabolized, grief can morph into every imaginable personal and cultural harm. Martín Prechtel has observed that we are “surrounded by the ghosts of unwept ancestors.” (from his CD “Grief and Praise”) If you already have a gratitude practice, try weaving in some daily grief tending on behalf of the larger collective. Stretching our capacity to hold both grief and gratitude in the palm of our hands, is sacred work indeed. (Photo by Banta. Prayer flags at Amherst Peace Pagoda, Amherst, MA) #ancestralwisdom #ancestorsspeak #grieftending #sacredactivism #healingjourney #calloftheancestors