We live our human lives in a constant state of celebration and mourning for that which we love.

And yet many of us have been taught to stay away from grief and mourning when we've experienced a loss. We often receive the message that we should handle it alone, and as rapidly as possible.

However, grief is richest when we're able to grieve in community.

This gentle, healing series will help you unearth feelings and issues that have become tangled up with loss. You'll discover a safe, warm space that will enable you to face whatever is blocking your grief — and enjoy gentle support, empathy, and tender acknowledgment for your heartache around all kinds of loss: relationships to loved ones, companion animals, peace and justice, sense of place, physical abilities, dreams, and more.

Here you'll find the support, understanding, and heartfelt caring you've been seeking.

By course's end, you may:

• Gain an understanding of your relationship to your grief;
• Recognize and free yourself from life-alienating blocks;
• Call forth hidden guilt and shame to soak in life-serving empathy
• Distinguish between pain caused by suffering and the beauty of mourning
• Unlock grief and support its access and flow

The safety of this holding will be led by Kristin Masters, a certified NVC trainer who appreciates the power and beauty of grief in community. Kristin has led many grief gatherings and workshops over the past 10 years, all with very positive feedback. She approaches grief and mourning through the lenses of NVC, Living Compassion (the work of Robert Gonzales), Work that Reconnects (the work of Joanna Macy), and 10+ years of singing at bedsides with the Threshold Choir. Accompanying her wife/life partner through terminal brain cancer to the end of her life four years ago tested and grounded Kristin's 'knowing' into a whole new dimension of dealing with loss.