Join Naila for a grief retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains

You do not have to carry your grief alone.

Hello, friends.

It's been a while, and I can honestly say I do miss this space. The conversations Sarah and I brought you were not only deeply rewarding to share, they enriched and stretched me, too, inviting in deeper layers of care and wisdom for my own grief journey.

We know we released this space, hoping it would continue to thrive in the tending of other hands. And that is still a dream, even if held a little more loosely now. In the meantime, we hope you are feeling companioned by the many episodes that still live here, from Sarah's solo days with the podcasts to her guest host series to when I joined as co-host.

I'm also excited to extend an invitation to join me and grief therapist Amy Hyun Swart for a three-day grief retreat surrounded by the redwoods in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

I know many of you listeners are in the Bay Area and some of you connected live with Sarah when she lived there. And It would be such an honor to share some time and space with you in-person.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the world and living through these times in our country, if the ways you've strategized to cope with your own personal sorrows are no longer serving you, if you feel alone in your grief or wish you were more resourced, this retreat offers a soft place to land.

We will gather from Sept. 5-7 for three days of sacred grief tending and ritual at the historic Ben Lomond Quaker Center .

Our time together will include guided meditations, somatic practices to connect to the wisdom of the body, ritual to engage and express our sorrows and creative offerings to learn how to carry our grief with care, patience and trust in its medicine, rather than ignoring, or being obliterated by, it. There will also be time to savor our serene surroundings while being nourished by delicious plant-based foods.

All griefs are welcome, from the personal to the national and global. You don’t have to carry it all alone. And as wise elder and ancestor Sobonfu Somé reminded us:

"Communal grieving offers something that we cannot get when we grieve by ourselves. Through validation, acknowledgement and witnessing, communal grieving allows us to experience a level of healing that is deeply and profoundly freeing."

I would love to share this healing space with you.

Find all details and registration here.