Manifesto
The Grief Story Project is a sacred container of sisterhood that features a collection of real stories from real women who have experienced the raw naturalness of grief and are bravely sharing their stories to inspire other women to honour the unique and universal aspects of grief that bring us together.
In this space we hold grief as a sacred and natural event in life that enhances our ability to feel alive and contribute necessary life affirming energy to our personal and collective culture by tending grief with love and devotion. Here we turn grief into beauty and celebrate our inherent wholeness.
Why Stories?
Stories have the power to heal us and bring us together. When women sit in circle and pass the talking stick, we can learn so much from one another's story, from the way each woman talks, by the words she chooses, the tone of her voice, the depth of her sincerity, the space between her words, the tears and heartfelt emotions that vibrate through her tone. The subtlety and power of each story is transcendent. And the gift of each woman in her wholeness sharing a piece of her self is an honest treasure.
Grief is so variably unique to each woman and experience that there are no two stories alike. Yet as women in this society of lost knowledge on tending grief, it is through sharing our stories that we can begin to realize we are not alone, and that in fact there are many women who feel just the way we do. We learn from one another in sisterhood.
The Grief Story Project is a circle of women whose stories unite us in the universal language of grief and life, love and loss.
Why is Grief so Important?
Without it, you are not who you think you are.
Grieving is a part of our wildness.
It is a part of life.
It is an inherent part of our human nature.
When we deny grief a place in our lives, we cut off our air flow, and we suffocate and disconnect ourselves from the very life that feeds us.
Grief and Life are the same thing.
They belong in the same house.
To evict one is to separate yourself from your very nature.
There is no manual for grief. It's a unique journey for each and every woman.
We have a cultural phobia around the whole subject of grief, death, and loss.
In our culture, grief, death and loss are not really talked about.
No one prepares us to know what to do, what to say, how to support ourselves or others during a time of loss.
We can encounter a type of spiritual information out there that only focuses on the Light and brushes over the deep searing pain that is as real as mud. This can discredit the real truth; that light includes dark, joy includes sorrow, and love includes grief.
We need to be so comfortable in the dark that we see the light there.
Grief can leave you gutted, but it’s wrapped up so eloquently with life’s sweetest magic, there is no separating them.
We need to unhinge and come undone in our grief.
We need to REWILD ourselves to our true nature.
But it’s not safe to do it alone or without a knowing of the consequences.
I think that’s why people shy away from it. It is this instinct that the grandeur that will inevitably possess them, will also alter their lives. But life has already changed for people who are grieving. To deny the urgency of coming undone and being fully expressed is to live in purgatory between the realms of living and dying.
We need a safe container and supportive people to stand guard so we can fully let down.
To do so without that safety would be dangerous, and we can feel that need for support but rarely do we get it in our culture. So we are torn to do the best we can.
Grief has this way of showing us a raw & honest account of life through the occasion of death, endings and loss. It's SO intense.
Yet grief also connects us to others because of our shared experiences.
When something grief-worthy happens it affects everyone in the community.
Even if something terrible happens to just one person, that person is going to need the support of her family and friends to get through it.
However, there’s this dynamic that happens for people in grief because grief is naturally isolating.
It’s a time of going inward and evaluating what really matters. It’s a time to connect with the inner landscape and experience the tender expressive space of the heart.
Grief Stories have the capacity to bring us together and help us tend and navigating this sacred life.
