As I stood with a group of my friends on Sunday - Simon’s Birthday - at his memorial bench, it was clear how this year has been shaped by his passing.
Many of us trying to messily muddle through, processing it all, whilst working, child-rearing, life-ing...
Within a society, that doesn’t necessarily hold the patience + respect that grief really requires.
Peter Levine says “Grief is love trying to find itself again”
So here we were, in a chilly park in Woodley, getting together to celebrate him + all quietly appreciating each other more than ever.
Kids + dogs running around our ankles. New babies being passed around. Taking turns to sit on his beach.
For me, it’s been a year of learning to love a little softer, messier, more vulnerably + courageously than before.
And it became the year I really committed to honouring each new moon, every season turning, every bleed as my way of processing it
Each cycle became a reminder to pause, feel the passing of time, soften + challenge the pull of the old Hannah way: to harden or speed passed that which needed to be felt or tended to.
These cyclical milestones that just kept on coming + reminding me to be tender.
These regular reminders that I was not a machine.
What I needed in this season, day, moment would be different.
So would I be willing to listen?
It forced me to share more with those closest to me + ask for help.
To meet the very human fear that comes with knowing this will all happen again throughout life + nature.
Honouring the many inner + outer cycles has enabled me to process the duality of the everydayness AND the life-shaking vastness of the loss of a life.
Teaching me new depths of what it meant to be in compassionate relationship with myself, others + nature.
To be in the world without quite so much armour on.
And this is one of the many reasons I was inspired to create...The Soulful Human Space
A nourishing space, for people who struggle to make their own.
Offering a monthly Embodied New Moon Workshop + EFT session around the New Moon or the turning of a season...
To slow down, take care, take stock, redirect if needed + support ourselves within the pace, pressures + complexities.
To gather the learnings of another month passed + ask “what is needed now?”
Offering embodied movement, breath, EFT, heart medicine, nervous system care + soulful self-reflection
And we can step into the next cycle with a little more intention, authenticity, purpose + care.