Collective Grief

 

Greetings all,

I hope you are safe and healthy.  It has been some time.  I have been in a dark place so I haven't really had the words till now to pen a post.

Right now where I live, we're in the midst of a large surge in virus cases.  Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the damages are yet to be tallied from the many gatherings that have occurred.  I learned that a friend has been in the hospital with covid since before the holiday.  I am safe working from home as is my family, but still I feel so much ominous dread.  Since I last checked deaths from the pandemic in the US are around 280,000 and it is highly likely that we'll be over 300,000 by the new year. I am finding it hard to fathom.  How do we deal with a loss like this? How do we brighten the season when the season is bringing death to so many, and financial ruin to many more?  How do we come together to grieve, when we are so divided not only in distance but in beliefs?

Since my last post I have been greatly relieved that we will have new leadership in our country.  However the current power structure seems to want to set it all aflame before then.  I realize that I am suffering from trauma, not individual trauma but a societal one.  What I feel is not only personal grief, but grief for the world.  This is not new to me, but it is certainly magnified. Post pandemic something will have to be done to help us come to terms with our losses.  Space must be given for our grief both the personal and the collective.  No one alive today has faced circumstances like these.  I have been thinking of gathering with other healers after all of this passes and spending a few days in ceremony.  It is no accident that the last time I received a hug (March 6th) was also the last time I drummed in a circle. We need our circles and right now many of us are without them.  

Why am I telling you this?  Well all of us have some degree of empathy.  We may be isolated physically but emotionally we are all connected.  Our fates are entwined.  We feel what the world feels, and right now that is deep sadness as well as anxiety.  We must find a way to grieve for the collective if not now, then when it is over.  Otherwise that unspent grief will poison our souls and darken our hearts. 

How about you?  Are you shuddering from the weight of the world?  Are you suffering in silence with no outlet?  Do you believe that all you are feeling are your feelings?  If so you may want to take a few moments each day in a darkened room to allow the tears for the world and for yourself to flow.  Grief is part of the healing process. We cannot be made whole again without it.  So we must grieve together and apart for those we know and those that we don't.  Take care of yourselves.

Peace and Blessings,

Thomas Mooneagle