The Lost Art of Grief Tending

Grief tending is the much-needed medicine of our times.

Originating from the root word ‘tenderness’, grief tending invites us to bring compassion to our grief, as we would to a small child or a wild garden.

When we create spaces for our grief to be witnessed and welcomed, not only do we allow our grief to flow and move, but we also expand our capacity to feel love, connection and presence.

In fact, in the Guatemalan Tz’utujil language the word for ‘grief’ and ‘praise’ are the same. It is with this awareness that grief becomes something that we learn to embrace; something we can integrate as a core human faculty and a willingness to be alive, fully.  

Our grief tending events are inspired by the work of Francis Weller and rooted in the practices of connection, embodiment and rest. 

~The truth is that we were never meant to do this alone.

Connection - We understand the need to come together to welcome grief, honour loss through ritual, and reconnect to our human yearning for intimacy and belonging. It is through grief tending as a community that we find connection to each other, ourselves and the earth.

~ Healing happens when we welcome our bodies back into the story.

Embodiment - We adopt a somatic approach to grief tending, offering ways to regulate our nervous system, orientate ourselves towards safety and come home to our bodies, so that we can integrate grief and reclaim our aliveness. 

~ Slow down and be excessively gentle with yourself.

Rest - We recognise the need for a gentle place to land, one where you can let go of the breathless pace of productivity, growth and progress. We offer practices to invite nourishment, integration and ease into your life.

As we remember how to tend to our grief in this way, we emerge with the capacity to hold it all; love and loss, grief and gratitude and life and death. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.