by Sara Lewis

Grieving isn’t well supported in our culture. In one of our children’s classes once, a young child that I didn’t know very well shared that his grandfather had recently died, and “church was the only place where it was OK to be sad”. Everywhere else in his life, this child felt the message was “cheer up”.

How sad to have the full range of emotions crushed like that. We just need better tools in our emotional toolboxes.

That’s why I’m so glad for the work of our upcoming January to February Share the Plate partner: “Wild Grief” (Wild Grief | Grieving in Nature – Wilderness Hikes in the Pacific Northwest), a program that gets grieving young people and families into the outdoors. They are driven by three beliefs: in the power of nature, the need for community, and the importance of acknowledging the impact of death.

In these times of pandemic they have adapted their program for virtual journeys and online programs, and ended up serving three times as many people as they were expecting. They are also developing tools to help other grief programs get started elsewhere.

You can learn more on their website and see their work in action in this video: https://vimeo.com/387599966

Clearly, there is a great need for their work in this world. Please be generous, our community partners continue to need our support. Thank you all.