Hey there,

We hope you’re doing well.

(Nathan, here, with a special reach out to my fellow grievers.)

I’ve been grieving my brother Edward for almost 2 years now.

(And as a measure of that project, I’ll admit that it took me a long time today to write anything else after that sentence. . .)

Suffice it to say, Edward’s death and the process I have been through since has changed me so much that who I was before would barely believe it.

Grieving has taught me so much more than I ever wanted to know. About emotional pain and expression, for sure, but also about cremation, and traveling with cats, and obituaries, and bank loans, and real estate, etc., etc..

Another thing I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about is loving someone who’s “gone”.

On Full-Time Grievers, the podcast I now cohost (because podcasting is another thing grieving is teaching me), we were talking about the ongoing connection we have with our deceased loved ones. It can be anything from playing a song or doing an activity they liked, visiting a special place in honour of them, or writing them a note, to donating to a cause they cared about, creating art to them, and/or cultivating rituals that keep us in contact.

Among a litany of other things, I regularly leave Edward long rambling voice messages, and I visit the bench we got for him in Missoula. Some local folks have even seen me blessing the bench on special occasions. I also visit him in the spirit world, ask him for support, and bring him to important moments and places.

This month on the Micro Full Snow Moon – on 2.12 which is a special number for Edward and me and some of our friends – we’ll be leading another edition of the Grief Well. This is a guided set of rituals for honouring, mourning, and continuing connection with our dearly departed.

You can opt in or out of each element in this roughly 90-minute ceremony, choosing your level of privacy, in compassionate community with fellow grievers, from the comfort of your own space. All grief levels and all grievers are welcome.