Drinking the medicine of this time
to honour and release what we are saying goodbye to

 ritual to do at home | free | watch below

 
 

You are invited to A Time To Grieve - a simple way to honour and release what you are saying goodbye to

We are in a crucible moment, a time of global reset, a potent liminal space which is offering us time to pause. We are being called to stop. To slow down. To stay home. To exhale. And all the while during this time of separation and isolation we are witnessing heartwrenching suffering that is revealing powerlessness. loss and grief.

 We cannot reorganise or re-strategise our way out of this. We are coming face to face with our limitations and the frailties that have led us here. And we are seeing this together. All of us. At the same time. 

The collective fear, anxiety and dismay is palpable. You are not alone if you are sensing this. It’s in the air, like a virus.  

Yet within this challenging moment lies an invitation to drink in the medicine of this time… to listen to the deeper call from within. To listen to what is happening underneath what is happening. To open to a sacred redesign.

What happens when we don't anaesthetise ourselves with busyness, when we stop trying to master the latest DIY or self development project, when we turn away from social media and endless Zoom calls and really allow ourselves to feel our aloneness?

What happens when we actually meet ourselves inside?

What happens when we stop our doing and begin to be with our being?

But this is not always easy. The discomfort of this moment is so great and can feel so chaotic. We need handrails, we need maps and we need each other. 

What if there was a way to ease this descent into the darkness? A way to gently midwife yourself through this time of intensity? This is where ritual and the wisdom of natural cycles comes in.

OUR RESPONSE
We have have been sitting in our own grief, learning how to be in the discomfort of this chaotic void. While we do not proclaim to be experts, we have vast, relevant experience and we know that we can be useful. And so we are offering this meditation and reflection; it is simple, guided and designed to be gentle on your system. It is imperfect and emergent. Our intention is to offer support in an open way, demystifying ritual and making it easily accessible.

Please accept this gift and come and meet yourself in your loss.

Weave your way through an hour-long experience with a video recording virtually holding your hand.

Come. Sit. Exhale.

Together, we will use meditative and reflective practices to bring us into a little more ease, spaciousness and presence during this crucible time.

Let’s grieve, presence and honour what we are being asked to let go of - the world that was, the wishing, the suffering, the lives lived, the lives lost, the parts of ourselves that no longer make sense, the relationships being surrendered, the work and livelihoods forever transformed, the systems found wanting, the mindsets now redundant, our planet in crisis, our future unknown. This is #atimeto 


Enjoy this as a personal experience and then we’d love to invite you to share your impressions online on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #atimeto .


PREPARATION

  • pen and paper

  • candle and matches/lighter

  • honour your time and space, close all distractions, let people know you’re not available for the hour

    * this is a low-tech set up so please enjoy the experience and excuse technical shortcomings

    Offered to you in love, service and in-this-togetherness by Lydia Campbell and Suzanne Bowles. Keep in touch with ‘A Time To’ and subscribe below to hear what emerges next.

 
 

A NOTE ON RITUAL
Ritual is any act or practice done with intention - this can be lighting a candle, breaking bread, starting a relationship, ending a relationship, saying hello, saying goodbye. Ritual is a way to honour and work with your inner and outer landscape in a tender, practical way. Ritual is both the map and the territory. It is a pathway through transition and it is an illumination of the medicine waiting within.

A NOTE ON GRIEF AND CREATIVITY CYCLES
This period of personal and collective grief is enormous. And alongside the enormity sits a tender possibility that this darkness and chaos may just be the early stages of a new cycle of creativity, a new cycle of life. But we have a way to go to get there. Nature shows us that new life begins with the clearing and composting of the last cycle’s waste... and so for us in this time of darkness, our grieving and releasing is one way that we can tend to ourselves and activate our creative cycles.

A NOTE ON WISDOM
Honouring loss and marking transitions are well established in all of our great traditions. As we are all indigenous people of this planet, we all have access to our own inner wisdom. When we pause and take stock, we know what needs to be honoured. We know what needs to pass on in order to make space for what is wanting to become.  

THE WELL OF GRIEF

Those who will not slip beneath
     the still surface on the well of grief,

turning down through its black water
     to the place we cannot breathe,

will never know the source from which we drink,
     the secret water, cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering,

     the small round coins,
          thrown by those who wished for something else.

DAVID WHYTE