What is dying? What is being born?

Hello!

What a delight to spend time with our community Sunday with our online ritual to welcome the new year. Bogata, Milwaukee, Pacifica, Chico, Atlanta, and more! So many beautiful humans coming together to hold space for what was and welcome what will be.

With so much loss in 2020 and with the promise of healing in 2021, we made space for grief. We made space for light.

As I shared during our call, I have been taken with this idea shared by Alicia Garza in her conversation with adrienne maree brown about our roles during this time of transition. Alicia said, in hospice, you do not interrupt death. You attend to the process of dying. What are you providing hospice for? What is dying? She also acknowledged that birth is not a moment but is also a process that is attended to. What are you providing prenatal care for? What is being born?

One of the practices I have developed to support myself in times of massive transition is a ritual around "Sticky Stories". This is a practice I shared in my book Show Up Hard: A Road Map For Helpers In Crisis. Part of the possibility of major transition is grappling with our own stories. With that grappling comes the opportunity to reimagine a new story for ourselves. I'm sharing the practice with you from the audiobook here and you can download the Sticky Story worksheet from the website. Book 2, Chapter 2: Are your narratives your identity?

If you are interested in more practices for building empathy and resilience in the face of crisis, sign up for the free 30-day e-course. I'll host another community call for us in a month.

In the meantime, a waterfall of gratitude to you.