Saturday, September 16th
1pm - 5pm
Next Ceremony:
The Healing Hoop is a community minded, ceremonial event focused on supporting an environment that encourages vulnerability and its many faces. It is a coming together in community to shift grief from being individually to collectively held. This is about coming into relationship with our grief so that it does not harden us and so that we are not swallowed by it.
This ceremony is an invitation to explore ritual for any human grieving, a past we wish could be different, a future we hoped for, a present that has an ache to it, a yearning or a complete desperation.
The Healing Hoop is not for performing our grief, but allowing it to bring what comes - rage and anger, sadness and pain, turmoil and, maybe, at some point, peace. It’s to hold the hand of our grief, and most importantly, to tend to it, together. Be it cries of grief, songs of triumph or disgruntled rants, this is a circle of connected people who represent the larger hoop of living consciousness that surrounds us.
Personal Bundle
During the ceremony, there will be guidance to create your own personal bundle for this process. In your personal bundle, you can include various items like herbs, a bowl, a rock, a crystal, corn meal, a feather, a staff, a small sacred object and any object or photograph which brings memories of your loved ones.
It's customary for tobacco (will be provided) to be the first item in the bundle.
Event Flow
Community exercises will be explored and opportunities to be witnessed on your truth will arise!
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Opening circle
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Writing exercise
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Honour, work with, and remember our journeys using personal, sacred objects accompanied by song, music and story
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Meditation with drum journey and sound healing
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Closing circle
Your Hosts, Supporting in Service
Matthew Kelemen
I am blessed with a very intimate relationship with grief and I have grown to think of grief as a close and dear friend.
It wasn’t always this way…
Heaviness has come along with me on most journeys and the weight of lost love, broken promises, failed expectations and the nature of growth has been too much to carry many times throughout this life. It has been one of the most liberating realizations to discover then, that grief doesn’t have to be “carried”. There are many ways to “move” with grief.
I had a very special woman in my life tell me once, “I think you need to stop pretending that remaining in one place is going to help the grief change. It’s time for you to get on the horse called grief and ride into the wind.” This is fundamental in my relationship with this beautiful ally that we call grief.
I am deeply honoured to support you on your ride and to help stabilize a space where you feel empowered and safe to move with your grief and embrace the depths of the love and joy that can be found in such a place; those very same depths that call upon us to reclaim our self-worth, self-love and self-respect.
Blessings to you brothers and sisters. Aho!
Cesar Balestrini
Recently, I experienced the loss of my mom, and grief, as a natural and complex emotional response, has been present in my life for the past few months. It has manifested in various ways, including sadness, anger, regret, emptiness, confusion, and loneliness. However, I have found that there is no right or wrong way to grieve, and each person experiences it differently.
To honor my mom's memory, I have found a beautiful way to keep her memory alive by playing the drum and singing every Sunday evening at 9:00 pm, which was the time she used to call me from Mexico.
When I was invited to be part of a possible grief circle, I got excited about the opportunity to remind others that there are many ways to cope with grief and honor the memory of our loved ones. Being in the circle and having the chance to reflect and celebrate on the joyful moments, smiles, and good times is also an opportunity to bring ritual ways back into our lives.
Overall, while experiencing grief can be challenging, finding ways to honor the memory of our loved ones and reflect on the positive memories can be comforting and help with the healing process.
Daria Soltysiak
I am not sure what is more painful, the grief or living in a culture incapable of truly holding the grieving person.
A grief circle, for me, is water in the desert. It is a place to come, hand in hand with our grief. To hold it collectively, recognizing our personal grief is everyone’s responsibility.
It’s about helping one another find our footing, providing a way for us to not only express our sorrow but to praise what has left us.
“Establishing a relationship with grief, developing practices that keep us steady in times of distress, and staying present in our adult selves are among the central tasks in our apprenticeship with sorrow.”
- Francis Weller
Kelley Thompson
My journey with grief has been to decouple it from shame, perceived failure, and unworthiness. Emotions are very complex, and it’s not always simple to look at an event or situation to try to decipher where any isolated emotion is attributed, perhaps especially grief.
Grief can be sneaky. Grief can also be very, very patient. I have recently gone through, what I know to be referred to as, a “grieving window” where the triggering of deep, deep personal grief has opened a channel of expression and release for as much grief as was ready to move and be released. To grieve is to intentionally commit to a process of moving through, and I believe that these processes and experiences aren’t something we are meant (or maybe even able) to go through alone when we are truly ready to face them.
And while we cannot take on the sufferings or burdens each other has to go through, what we can do is sit together and allow for these kinds of emotions and deep processes to be witnessed and supported as they move and rip through our lives. We may not all be going through the exact same scenario, but when we share our experiences together, we build a communal relationship with Grief, and what it is here to guide us each into becoming.
Please contact connect@sacredrow.com if you have any questions about the event itself or barriers to participation that you may be experiencing.