Grief Gratitude and Courage
Workshops touch the power of grief to connect, heal and transform.
“ I was most worried that it would be really depressing the whole way through, and afterward I’d be a pile of tears, and feeling helpless. But instead I found it really refreshing and uplifting.”
ORIGIN AND PURPOSE
Grief Gratitude and Courage Circles were first shaped in 2019 by Terry LePage as gatherings to honor and express climate grief, to begin to face an impending loss beyond our comprehension. GGC Circles were tested online in Spring of 2020 for losses related to pandemic. GGC works for people grieving different losses together, though a given circle may focus on a certain loss. Activists and people witnessing deep suffering may particularly appreciate GGC. It is not designed to address the recent loss of a loved one.
Grieving is both a sacred communal practice and a healthy part of living. GGC gives people the space and tools to grieve together, in an online format or in person. This work has become urgent as we face losses we have never faced before, due to pandemic and ecological devastation.
ABOUT TERRY LEPAGE
Terry LePage creates spaces for connection, healing, insight, and inspiration. With a PhD in chemistry and a Masters of Divinity, she combines heart and head in teaching and facilitation. She has worked as a transitional minister and hospice chaplain, and for immigrant rights. She is currently leading groups for Nonviolent Communication, Way of Council, Grief Gratitude and Courage (for grief other than personal bereavement), and racial justice. You can reach her at: terry@opendoorcommunication.org.
THE THREE MOVEMENTS
GRIEF
We have not been taught to grieve losses like a job, or an identity, or a democracy, or a species. So our loss may be expressed as rage or fear or despair. Putting words to our loss in supportive community allows us to begin to grieve. Facing our grief frees us to live well in hard times.
GRATITUDE
A strange thing happens when we honor a loss. That which remains becomes precious, radiant. The ordinary is no longer ordinary but a great gift. We experience gratitude, not as duty, but as wonder and delight. Surprisingly, the light of loss illuminates our lives.
COURAGE
Who will you become when you have finally named and grieved that which haunts you? Good grief puts wind in our sails, inviting us to seek new shores. We can’t tell you what your courage looks like, or where your journey will take you. But we will cheer you on your way.
In these times we are living in is there anyone not experiencing grief?
Not everyone recognizes grief straight away. They might just feel rage-ful all the time. They might feel exhausted all the time. They might be low and leaking tears and been told it's situational depression.
In ancient times we used to gather to process grief as communities, in circles. The memory of this experience lives in our bones. When grief is expressed in community, in circle, it meets other people's grief and comes out of isolation.
Weeping together, sharing stories, and speaking our losses are essential to the human spirit. What the world needs now are people willing to listen to people speak and weep. Not to fix them, not to offer advice, not to try to cheer them up, not to bypass reality in favor of an illusion. To listen. And be heard.
-Alexandra Derwen
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