How do we hold space for our collective grief?

These past few days, I've felt myself walking around with a heavy heart. Witnessing the suffering of not just the people of Ukraine and Palestine but people all over the world fighting against systems of oppression is devastating. I often myself trying to avoid sitting with these feelings because resisting pain and sadness is much easier than sitting with it in my body.

I often wish there were more rituals for expressing and processing collective grief on a community and global level. Even though my day to day life may not feel different (and that is an immense privilege I carry), a part of my heart feels constantly broken for the systems in place that cause so much harm and the people who suffer because of it. In those moments, I wonder what is my role and more importantly, how do I continue to hold space and bear witness instead of turning away?

In Joanna Macy's book Active Hope, she offers a series of practices in the "Work that Reconnects", the work towards justice and liberation. In this spiral, she offers four practices.

Gratitude: Taking a moment to pause and recognize what we are still able to feel grateful for

Feeling Our Pain With the World: Sitting with the pain, grief, anger, desperation, and hopelessness we may feel

Seeing With New Eyes: Exploring what can help us see ourselves and the world in a new way, a different way. I interpret this as allowing ourselves to find spaces for hope in terrible situations

Stepping Forward: The final task is to ask ourselves, is there one step we can take towards creating a world we want to live in?

I find this spiral of practices to be a restorative way of thinking about change because it offers space for all the emotions that take place when we are fighting for and dreaming of a new world. In our work, we often feel anger, frustration, devastation, despair, and hopelessness - these can be normal emotions when we reflect on what is happening to ourselves, our communities, and our world. Yet, without space to sit with these feelings and to know you are not alone, we can feel the weight of these emotions constantly with little opportunity for release.

Today, I spent a few minutes leading myself through this cycle to offer myself a chance to honor the emotions and feelings that are coming up for me. While I still feel emotional heaviness in my heart, I also feel a seed of hope knowing that maybe there is one small step I can take towards the world I want to build.