Collective Grief Work

What is collective grieving about? Why is 350VT holding these gatherings? 

Human beings are caring beings. We care about each other; the earth, our home; and our kin of all kinds: animal, plant, fungi, water, land, air. 

When we care, and we experience hurt or change, or we see that hurt or change may happen, it impacts us. It’s natural to feel sorrow, outrage, fear, anxiety, and more. These emotions help us process what’s happening and motivate us to take action toward needed change. But if we don’t have a supportive space to honor loss or harm, we may struggle to feel much at all, and become numb or stuck. 

Right now, we are witnessing and experiencing tremendous change and harm. Some of it has been going on for a very long time: violence, injustice, war, oppression, exploitation of people and the land, the loss of traditional cultures and languages. Other parts are newer, or are happening on unfamiliar scales: climate disasters, species loss, the fraying of democratic governance. It is a lot to face. 

There is more reason than ever to grieve, and many of the difficult circumstances we’re facing will continue getting worse. Being present with what’s happening and coping with it, existentially, emotionally, and practically—together—are essential skills for our lifetimes. Organizing effectively for the change we need depends on these capacities.Grieving what’s being lost and harmed in the world around us is also part of embracing the profoundly interconnected, interdependent nature of life on earth, and being respectful neighbors to our kin of all kinds. 

For many people, communities, and cultures, grief is primarily a communal experience (even for many introverted and private people). Coming together to honor loss allows feelings to move and flow. Yet most of us from the dominant U.S. culture don’t have supportive spaces for communal mourning. Creating these spaces is part of the culture that we need to build, and part of the nourishment that we need to sustain ourselves and our movements in these times.