Never too Late to Heal Your Relationship with Your Dead (workshop and online event series)
Join us as we explore honoring endings and ways we can stay connected and even heal our relationships with our dead. Because it’s Never too Late to Heal…
We’re kicking off our new Consciously Connected Village with healing your relationship with your departed ones (beloved or complicated), your relationship with endings, and grief/loss (for yourself or a loved one) whether death related or not.
When you join us, you’re joining our village. Part of village life is celebrating together and we’re kicking off our village with our immersion into Day of the Dead as it is celebrated and observed in Oaxaca, Mexico. We’ll be joined by Mexican families to share what is happening in their homes during this special time. We’ll also be sharing community spaces to explore your relationship with loved ones who have passed on, creating a container together to slow down and integrate what is left for you.
In many cultures, death is taboo. We are expected to grieve briefly and move on. I think that is what was so striking for me when I first experienced Day of the Dead. My first experience was in 2016 in Ecuador about 6 months after a violent earthquake hit the coast near the town of Canoa. We didn’t know it was Day with the Dead (as they call it there) and wondered why people were boarding the buses dressed up with large bundles of flowers. When we arrived in the town, we were told of the earthquake and the celebration that was happening. Instead of a somber experience as we entered the cemetary, it was deeply honoring and rather festive with music playing and even dancing! We were invited to join families as they recounted their loved ones lives and offered their favorite foods. It wasn’t what I thought it would be like considering the tremendous loss of life not long before.
Prior to this, my only references for death were funeral parlors where we waited in long lines to awkwardly say something to the close family members before the viewing of the body. Or perhaps a church service where someone’s life was remembered and followed by large quantities of food in a church basement that must be eaten. This was none of those things!
When we went to Oaxaca, Mexico in 2017, we extended our trip so that we could stay to see Oaxaca’s version of Day of the Dead. What I experienced that first year was reverence of the families, pride in the household preparation for their loved ones to visit from the other side of the veil, the way the families worked together in community to build their ofrenda, and the honoring of the loved ones. And it was also a giant party. Giant. So much music and dancing. So much drinking (which isn’t my thing, so I just watched that part). And so colorful! What a celebration!
This is a living experience. We’re going to be bringing real families to be part of the experience and they will be sharing authentically what they’re doing and how they’re celebrating.
We’re also going to be creating space for YOU to share your own experiences with what we’re sharing, and also what you may do in your own home. This is an opportunity to learn about different cultural traditions and that means we welcome sharing from you, too!
This experience will include:
–A 3-hour workshop (Saturday, October 28) to explore your relationship with a loved one who has passed and plan to create a space for yourself during this time in your own home with special musical guest, Sarah Burke. There will be music, movement, art, and connection! I hope you’ll join us!
–Weekly live calls over four weeks to learn and share together as a group,
–Writing, art, and movement prompts (for yourself or for you to share in our shared spaces online),
–Movie discussion about Coco. The movie is animated and is based on people and villages here in Southern Mexico. We’ll be sharing little clips of the movie and different things about the culture. I’d encourage you to watch the movie and join our discussions!
–An exploration of rituals and rhythms in our lives and how we can incorporate them into our co-created experiences with our families.
–Support for acknowledging what endings are like in our lives and how we can integrate and heal after something has ended (whether that’s a relationship that ended by our choice or someone else’s choice, or death).
When you join us, you’ll get all of the above and more over the course of our month together. Everything is recorded so you can watch later if you can’t join live. And discussions and content are as you have time.
Join us now!
