Snowy winter scene

Words from a Caregiver 

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Claire Robson from Vancouver, Canada, joined a new healing circle at Callanish and shares her experience and perspective as a member. 
Commonweal bluffs

Caring for a Soulmate

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Deborah Baker first learned about healing circles at Commonweal’s Cancer Help Program. She describes her caregiver journey and how healing circles could have helped. She is inspired to start a healing circle for caregivers in Hawaii.
Fire in wood stove

A Healing Circle for Supporters

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As co-host of a new healing circle for caregivers at Callanish (in Vancouver, Canada), Susie lets the circle do the work. With minimal structure, the participants create their own healing and meet their own needs. 

Healing Circles and Existential Issues

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Sometimes the topics brought up during our healing circles feel dizzying in their scope and make me wonder: Is there anything that is not fair game? Not really, because when we open the spaces for an exploration of the internal landscape, we…

A Conversation with a Widow’s Nervous System

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The pain of loss is such an isolating experience, where the outside and inside of us are not aligned. We are out of sync with humanity, and yet we are inside an experience that each and every one of us will have.

‘I Am Rushing:’ a Mantra of Love and Memory

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I have just returned from spending time with a dear friend and her husband. They are living in what I have come to call “Illness Time” ­ not a period of time spent ill, but time itself defined by illness.

Managing the Time Warp of Loss: Why Do They Want to Marry the Widow off?

When our parents die, no one tries to comfort us by saying, "You can love like this again with a new mother, new father, or a different grandparent.” Yet, with the loss of a spouse, people quickly start talking about a new companion, a new sexual partner, a new friend.

Veterans Helping Veterans

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After a healing circle helped former sargent James Pride face his own loss, he reached out to his community to form a Veterans Helping Veterans healing circle.

In Exile 

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Sharing moments from a tender counseling session with a bereaved mother, Janie Brown takes a strong and compassionate look at the impact of loss on our hearts and our lives. Do we actually “move on?” Do we actually “get over it?”
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An Apprenticeship with Sorrow

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Francis Weller views grieving our current, as well as our "untended" sorrows, as essential for the freedom and vitality of our souls. He says, “Learning to welcome, hold, and metabolize sorrow is the work of a lifetime.”