Hello and welcome to a humanizing place for loss, grief or bereavement.

Sammy Haywood offers an intimate and confidential space to express grief and gratitude.

This is a coming together of the village in a way that supports a sense of belonging and friendship — and is able to hold both the tears and the laughter.

Whether your grief is new, long past or currently emerging - come, connect, move, listen and share. You are welcome.
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Choose your level of participation

Choose your own level of engagement. However much or little you wish to participate is up to you.

It begins at the start time but if you need to leave after the first hour, you are welcome to do so. If you prefer to walk solidly for 90 minutes, this is completely ok. Sometimes we need time together-apart.

Who is this for?

A Mourning & Celebration Walk is for people who

would like to learn or develop more fluency in the languages of death, dying, grief (in all its myriad shapes and forms)
are grieving and want to be part of life, yet not feel a need to participate fully
love walking and walking alongside others in nature
value sharing circles
have an aversion to sharing circles
want to be with others but not necessarily feel obliged to be 'social.
All are welcome

Process:

Arrive & ground (10-15 mins)

Arrive under the Old Oak Tree on the left of the entrance for the Collingwood Children’s Farm (18 St Heliers St, Abbotsford VIC 3067).

A very short grounding is offered, then you will be invited to share your name and the loss, grief and bereavement you are carrying with you.

Then we pair up and walk for thirty minutes carrying the prompts of the day.

Walk for 30mins

We are intentionally analogue. Phones are turned to silent/off; no scrolling, messaging or phone calls. We practice presence and connection with place and our people.

Choose to share with others (or not) - 30 mins Those who wish to share further are invited to offer a grief &/or a gratitude from their time walking for the group to harvest.

Close circle - (10/15 mins)

We'll close together.

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We seek to normalise the depth and breadth of grieving.
Grief can be isolating, discombobulating, overwhelming, quiet and stealth (add your own experience to this list). It may be readily accessible or perhaps buried in your body and difficult to locate.

This is place for what grief offers us: shame, tears, guilt and laughter, healthy anger, for friendships old and new, for solidifying bonds. A communal space to contain what we hold - sharing safely, in right relationship with grief. We meet to move our hands, minds, bodies, hearts, in the practice of metabolising what asks to be known.

Everything we love we will lose, people we love die, we fall in and out of love; we achieve, fall flat and fail to achieve, we feel let down or betrayed by people and ourselves, pets die, the planet suffers, war continues, wild places are plundered, species decline before our eyes... grief is older than we are, it lives where love lives and permeates the landscape of our lives.

We seek to share and learn together practical tools for being with grief so that in right relationship, we neither push it away, nor draw in it. We share in our collective knowledge, skills and experiences, whilst practicing the fine art of 'not fixing'.

And, please note these walks are community grief and gratitude tending - this is not group psychotherapy. I encourage you to seek supports in ways that feel right for you if needed.

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We possess the profound capacity to metabolise sorrow into something medicinal for our soul, and the soul of the community. The skill of grieving well enables us to become current—to live in the present moment and be available to the electricity of life.

- Francis Weller

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We are a welcome community for everyone. This includes people of all genders, faiths, backgrounds, orientations, ages and abilities. This is an alcohol free event.