Boulder Community Grief Circle

The foundational intention of the Boulder Community Grief Circle is to co-create a place where we can come together as a community and cultivate the courage to live with hearts open to the full spectrum of feelings that grief invites. The circle is a place where we can welcome the complex interplay of divinity and humanity within us and all around us as we contend with the realities of life and death and offer our compassionate presence to one another.

Grief is a profound initiation into deeper intimacy with life itself. Grief is multidimensional—personal and transpersonal, conscious and unconscious, ours and not ours. Francis Weller teaches that it is not only the death of our loved ones that our hearts long to grieve, but also the grief of all that did not come to be, grief for the love that we did not receive, collective grief, ecological grief, as well as the unprocessed grief of our ancestors.

This circle was originally co-created in 2023 out of a need in the Boulder community for a more integrated dialogue about grief—a space where the myriad forms of grief could be honored and attended to with reverence, compassion, and care.

When we avoid death, we avoid life. This is a space to lean in together. To feel, to breathe, and to be held by a supportive community. We gather together to communally attend to our grief and, in doing so, make a sacred offering to the entire Web of Relations of which we are an integral part. All are welcome to join in these conversations. Come as you are, and open to the magic that can unfold when we honor the fullness of what it is to be human among beloved community.

These circles will take place on the third Thursday of the month in 2024. Together, we will honor the motions of grief, death, and sorrow as they make themselves known within our community and collectively attend to grief in its many forms.

This offering is donation-based, and you are welcome to attend for free.

Any donations received will be donated to the following organizations . . .

January - March: Feet Forward

Feet Forward is a peer-led non profit organization built on a foundation of lived experience with homelessness in Boulder County, Colorado. They provide low-barrier, housing-focused peer support and navigation services to individuals experiencing homelessness. They provide critical pre-housing engagement and build trust with individuals experiencing homelessness in only a way that a person who has been there and done that can. Their peer support and navigation extend beyond their weekly outreach and continue as a person secures a housing resource, transitions into housing, and long after they move in. They also increase service engagement and housing pathways by meeting people where they are and partnering with local helpers.

April - June: Unsilenced

Unsilenced is a non profit organization that serves past, present, and future victims of institutional child abuse. One of the largest culprits of this abuse is the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI), a network of unregulated and powerful congregate care facilities that claim to reform youth struggling with mental health or educational challenges. Instead of providing therapeutic services and education to at-risk youth, many young people experience abuse, neglect, and maltreatment at these facilities. Unsilenced advocates for constructive alternatives that circumvent institutionalization and keep young people with their families and communities.

July - September: International Dark-Sky Association

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is the recognized authority on light pollution and is the leading organization combating light pollution worldwide. By providing leadership, tools, and resources for individuals, policymakers, and industry, IDA works to reduce light pollution and promote responsible outdoor lighting that is beautiful, healthy, and functional. Their work brings the issue of light pollution to diverse communities worldwide with the goal of creating access to information about the destructive impact of over-lighting and the benefits of responsible lighting. They are guided by the vision of a night sky, filled with stars, that is celebrated and protected around the world as a shared heritage benefitting all living things.

October - December: Pr*son Yoga Project

Pr*son Yoga Project supports incarcerated people with trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices to promote rehabilitation, reduce recidivism, and improve public safety. Most incarcerated people have a history of complex, interpersonal trauma. This trauma is at the root of action that leads to harm and self-harm. True rehabilitation addresses this trauma. Pr*son Yoga Project offers a Restorative Justice practice that focuses on recovery from trauma, development of resilience, and cultivation of empathy, compassion, and personal responsibility. Their evidence-supported, trauma-informed approach to yoga and mindfulness supports people to face and release unresolved trauma safely and effectively. They provide resources and tools for recognizing and reducing aggression, impulsivity, reactivity, and despair. With these tools, people have a higher chance of taking personal responsibility and thinking and behaving differently. These tools and resources are the foundation for personal and social transformation so that currently incarcerated men and women may successfully reintegrate into society.

Host or Publisher Laurel Madeline ♡ Song of the Subtle LLC