In this trusting, tender, grounded yet softly-held time together, we’ll open to both the sorrows of our personal lives and our grief for Earth, however these may show up.

We’ll allow the alchemy of sorrow to bring us to fresh insight, courage and ultimately hope as we go to places that in our ordinary lives, don’t often get ‘space’.

With The Work that Reconnects as our framework, we’ll open to discover our own answers to the question: How can we stay awake and hopeful so we can be present for what is needed to restore the relationship between humanity and Earth?

We’ll begin with the first of Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Sorrow: That everything we love, we will lose; that everything is a gift, and that nothing lasts: our health, our dreams, certainty, friendships, stability, family.

As Emanuel a 12th Century Roman said, “it’s a holy thing to love what death can touch”

And Naomi Nye so aptly puts it:

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak it till your voice

Catches the thread of all sorrows

And you see the size of the cloth.

And we’ll give space to the Gate of ‘The Sorrows of the World’.

We know in our bones that something primal is amiss; our extended home is being eroded, and along with it, our experience of our wider and deeper self . Imperceptibly our connection to our soul can wither as we become conscious of the wounds, and ruptures in earth, where life once moved & breathed. Our body, our psyche registers and may weep for and with the forest/cockatoo/ocean/…..

And we recognise that we’re not separate from the world at all.

So it may feel daunting to step into grief that is there, just beneath the surface of our everyday lives, yet the journey of reclaiming our soul takes spending time with grief.

It is in allowing our grief to flow through us, as we share the communal cup of loss, that we find deep kinship with one another and the living world. As we come back to that deep, never-really-lost connection, our kinship with Earth heals and we are enlivened with fresh creativity and courage in our responses and actions to today’s fragmented world. The alchemy of grief strengthens us as we deepen into the fullness of our ever-present belonging.

Join us as we find nourishment and wisdom in the natural world of the Origins Centre - and in ourselves.

Contribution: $250 waged $200 concession.

Please do get in touch if finances were to get in the way of your participating.

In the spirit of generosity we invite your Dana to Origins for accommodation: $40 - $60 pp/ night.

Presenter: Helene Fisher and guest facilitators.

Contact: Helene at: climatechangewa@gmail.com

Profile: Helene: Helene has a deep love of facilitating work which enables participants to reconnect with the fullness of their life as co-inhabitants of Earth. Her work fosters a reawakening of the experience (and understanding of) our intrinsic interconnectedness with each other and with the natural world and how such understanding of our relationship can guide us in living with deepened wisdom and zest. Through her 30 years of facilitating the Work that Reconnects, she has been repeatedly inspired by its ability to empower people to find the creativity, the clarity and the trust to act for what matters most to them, with fresh insight and courage.

A testimonial:

I found this love and grief workshop both a gently moving experience, and a powerfully releasing one. The depth of care and consideration offered by the group leaders created a space that was welcoming of all my feelings, supportive of gently descending into my grief and vulnerability, and with such permission giving that I felt safe to have a deeply releasing experience of some very ancient grief. I feel tremendously grateful for the workshop and heartily recommend it to others wanting to do the same. As a group leader myself with over 30 years of experience, I want to honour the warmth, love and professionalism offered by Anne-Marie and Helene in this workshop.
Daniel