“There is nothing more whole than a broken heart”–Rabbi Menachem Mendel

Grief Rituals:

We live in a culture that often denies death, loss, and pain. As Leonard Cohen says, “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Modern societies don’t tend to deal with grief well. {eople who have lost a loved one often take a couple days of bereavement leave and then go back to work. We don’t have community rituals to help us metabolize our losses. We often feel isolated and alone in our grief.

Grief rituals are a powerful way to come into our shared humanity that we all experience loss. When we come together in community to grieve, we create a large container to hold grief and realize we are not alone. The comfort and resilience we experience in these collective circles is very healing. Whether you are grieving the end of a relationship, the death of a loved one, planetary or climate grief, anticipatory grief, the state of the world, or whatever else that brings you to mourn and breaks open your heart, know you are welcome.

Through community ritual of building a grief altar; a sharing circle; expressive arts (writing, movement, voicework) to help come into the body and move the emotions; art processes to create masks or grief companion cards from collage to express our pain and create beauty and meaning; a soothing sound bath; and time in nature, we can tend our broken hearts and build our resilience together.

I have been facilitating grief rituals for the last 7 years and have offered them at various nonprofits such as Reimagine, SF LGBTQ Center, and East Bay Meditation Center. I also lead private rituals for people experiencing loss of a child, parent, or other loved one. These are specially designed in collaboration with you to create the most beautiful ceremony and healing ritual. My wife Monique Miyake (hospice nurse, chaplain, bereavement counselor, death doula, and artist) and I also co-facilitate to design home funerals, memorials, and other grief rituals. We specialize in working with other bereaved parents.

Please contact me if you would like to bring a grief ritual or our grief performance to your community or home.