Changes in the Dark Woods

As we enter 2025, I’m feeling a tremendous amount of grief, alongside gratitude for so many things. How can we not be feeling both, as humans in a world full of so much beauty and so much suffering?

I want to share with you some big changes happening for 2025 in our Dark Woods Community today, and I also want to acknowledge the grief & gratitude alive in my heart. I know so many of us are feeling this. And sometimes it is hard to feel the gratitude when we are overwhelmed by grief. 

Despite the huge awakening that seems to be happening collectively, it has been absolutely intolerable to still be witnessing the continual and horrific violence our friends in Palestine, the Congo and so many other places are being subjected to for the agenda of colonization and profit. 

I just can’t believe that human beings can do this to other human beings, and yet I also know that when we are disconnected from our hearts, the harm we can do is devastating. 💔

As I was writing this, I received a message from one of our community members about the wildfires rampant in Los Angeles at this time. Her family is having to evacuate, and they have already been through so much. 

There is so much loss we have gone through collectively this year due to climate change, and it is most likely that this pattern will continue and worsen, so the science tells us. 

In a time when many are already overwhelmed with personal grief & isolation, how do we cope with this extra layer of loss and trauma? We desperately need more spaces where grief can be welcome as the loss and devastation continues. 

On the other hand,  I have been blessed to meet so many incredible humans this past year who are doing things to create meaningful positive change in their lives and the world. 

Dark Woods of Grief has been donating to several organizations that are bringing aid to Gaza & the Congo, and we are so grateful that we can contribute to this positive impact. 

On a personal level, I’m particularly grateful to my incredible team and Dark Woods of Grief. I’m totally in awe of these folks and their commitment to the work – and am very excited to introduce you to our new facilitation team members in our Dark Woods Grief Support Group (formerly Through the Dark Woods Membership). 

I’ve been reflecting on how, this time last year, I was SO deeply exhausted, (to the BONE), from facilitating too many groups each month on my own. Looking back on the past two years, I actually can hardly believe how much I was doing in 2023 – the first year of our Facilitator Training. 

Building a community around grief work is a tremendous amount of work. It requires the constant shifting back and forth, between deep right brain – in the role of holding space for grief – and deep left brain –  for all the admin & organization it takes to keep things going. 

This time last year, three of the graduates from our first (2023) cohort of the Dark Woods Grief Tending & Ritual Facilitation Training continued into a second year of mentorship with me. (Jane Spielman, Amber Keith & Madison Steadwell). This involved them each facilitating one Grief & Praise sessions each month within our community. 

It has been incredibly mutually supportive. They have grown immensely in their facilitation skills, and I have gotten to step back a little bit from facilitating and more into a mentorship role for them. 

I’m feeling so much gratitude for having arrived at the Winter Solstice this year feeling tired, (very natural for Winter!) but also deeply nourished and energized from a year where our team has grown so beautifully. 

With that said, there is a bittersweetness in this moment.  We are saying goodbye to a part of that team at this time, as they have now completed their one year Internship.  

Amber Keith will be leaving to pursue some new exciting projects, including travelling to Morocco & Spain, homesteading on shared land where she will likely be offering permaculture and nature-based programming for adults and teens, and Death Doula training. She is continuing to offer 1:1 Grief Support Coaching and can be contacted at info@amberaislin.com

Madison Steadwell will be continuing in Admin & Online Community Facilitation and letting go of her Grief & Praise facilitation role so she can focus her energy on the Social Work degree she is currently pursuing. 

Jane Spielman, PhD & Elizabeth Claire Burr will be continuing on our facilitation team. (Yay!!) 

Sometimes tears are “happy tears.”

I have to tell you, I’ve been crying a few of those in the past month because of what I’m about to share with you next…

Our amazing facilitation team at Dark Woods of Grief is, once again, growing.  

I’m very happy to be welcoming our 7(!) new team members for 2025. 

They are all graduating students of our 2024 Grief Tending & Ritual Facilitation Training and continuing into our 2nd Year Internship, which involves facilitating Grief & Praise sessions in our Dark Woods Grief Support Group (formerly Through the Dark Woods Membership.)

They are SUCH amazing humans – I’m totally in awe of these folks and their commitment to this work. 

With Love & Gratitude,

Josea