“A Practice: For the World-Smitten, Grief-Stricken, Who Will Not Give Up” is a multi-step process – a practice, or ritual of sorts – to support people suffering eco-anxiety or eco-grief. Its goal is to help people who care to continue to care and do so with whole selves and even with joy. For in such work there is no such thing as too late. We cannot give up.
Oof, the state of the world; the suffering of the wild; the denigration of those most beautiful, gentle, and good. And no one wants to hear it… Personally, I needed some way, some mechanism that would meet me in that lonely grief, but not only to sit with me there. I needed some process, some ritual I could undertake that would move me back into being whole-hearted in the world, back with equanimity and even joy to continue to advocate for the wild… even as I carry this grief.
This practice is what emerged. And as with most real things it continues to evolve. A keystone element of it is a little picture that I doodled one day as I was thinking through the steps I needed. Since then, I’ve developed booklets for practice as an individual and for people in groups. I’ve developed “The Practice as Art” for contemplation or engagement. And I’ve conceived a “live” retreat model (in hour-long, day-long, long-weekend-long, and even longer versions) so that people can experience every dimension of the practice in tandem with their own creative inclinations.
Please let me know through my Contact page if you are interested in applying the practice. If so, I’ve made available a few options to undertake the process: a do-it-yourself booklet (individual or group practice), scheduling an hour-long guided exercise (in-person or virtually), or as a retreat (of flexible duration).
In an act of resistance to our dominant culture’s insistence on infinite growth and never having enough, I am not taking any money for this. I am happy to utter these revolutionary words, “I have enough.” What I need is you others who care, who are trying, who get sad and tired, and really really want not to give up. So, I offer this practice freely to any who might benefit, despite anxiety and grief in order that they – you! – can continue to be all-in, of and for this astonishingly beautiful wild world. That would benefit us all.
