
Beth's Blog

Puzzle of Self: Part Two
I hope you’re settling into this new year well. And if you’re struggling with this new beginning-remember it’s only a calendar, (the Gregorian calendar) and New Years festivities are just modern ways of marking time. Time that we’d prefer not to march on if we’re grieving… In this culture there’s such a focus to let

Puzzle of Self: Putting Myself Back Together Post Grief
Merry Yuletide and Happy New Year, in the Gregorian calendar anyway. I wish we could have a holy pause; take two weeks off, get cozy, go inside and review our year and look ahead to 2023. But how do you do that if you’re in deep grief? Recently one client was invited to a solstice

It’s Dreaded December, If You’re Grieving…
Yesterday I asked my client how they were doing with the holidays approaching, now that it’s December. After a long sigh they replied, “Honestly, I’m dreading it.” So, welcome to dreaded December especially for those of you in acute grief going through your first holiday season without your loved one. Or perhaps you’re deep in the

Metabolizing Ancestral Grief
I continue my deep dive into ancestral grief and I invite you to do the same. Why? Some of our emotional issues and even our grief may not be ours-it’s passed down from our ancestors to us. Sometimes this shows up as addictions and physical illness. So we do this for our health and the

Connecting to Your Ancestors
Happy new moon and many blessings to you at this sacred time of year when the veil is thinning between our world and the next. In my last blog I wrote about how to set up a simple ancestor altar, but now what do you do there and what does it mean to have an

Honoring Your Ancestors with an Altar
It’s October and there’s still so much going on in the world. There’s more and more grief to process with the aftermath of hurricane Ian as well as all that’s happening in Iran right now, etc. How are you doing these days? Here in the northern hemisphere we’re getting closer to the darkest time of

Cowry Shell Divination
Happy Fall Equinox and almost New Moon to you all. A year ago I became an official Cowry Shell Diviner from my mentor and now beloved memory, Elder Malidoma Somé. I was honored to attend one of his final year long divination trainings as he transitioned to the ancestor world in December of 2021.

How to Honor a Decade of Loss
Thanks for being here and being part of creating a new culture of grieving. I write this with a fresh round of Earth grief as I continue to take in the recent news about forever chemicals in the water. Sorry if you don’t know that news and now you do. I feel

How to Have a Sorrow Party; Creating a New Culture of Grief
Blessings to you on this new moon. I hope you can take a moment to pause and rest during this sacred time. This month I want to invite you to really drop into changing the way we Westerners deal with grief, or rather how we don’t. We must create a new culture of being with

How to Move Anger and Rage
Hello dear ones, Rage is appropriate today… I feel it in my throat, and have the need to both cry and scream. I started writing this on the day Roe vs. Wade was overturned. I feel my grief just thinking about the impact this decision will have on so many. Now you know where I

An Invitation to Grieve Online & In-Person
Hello there loves, How are you in this month of June? I‘m doing mostly well…as we head into the hot dry season here and summer is in full swing, you’ll catch me with my hands in the dirt and Michael supervising me on our small bit of land that we get to steward. We were

My Earth Grief Experience
Hello dear ones, Happy May! Yesterday I took a walk in the rain! I wasn’t dressed for the water pelting me but I didn’t mind, I wanted to be soaked just like the land and plants were. And we were all sighing with relief at this most welcomed water. You see, we didn’t get our usual April showers and

Earth Grief and What To Do About It…
Hello dear ones, It’s April, the month where we celebrate Earth Day. I’m as old as Earth Day…it was born the year I was—1970. It was created as a way to bring more awareness to pollution and deforestation at that time. By now there is so much more that the earth needs

Artful Living During Times of Crisis
Hello dear ones, I’ve been in a weekly online group since July of 2021 called “Soulful Life” with my grief mentor Francis Weller and another grief warrior, Holly Truhlar, along with about 70 other participants. It’s become a healing balm I look forward to each week, especially now with the war in the Ukraine added

About FONO (Fear of Normal), Managing our return together
Hello dear ones, This blog expands on something in my last one–pacing yourself as we begin to open up. If you need an online grief ritual, my friends Joanna Laws Landis and Will Rogers will be facilitating a Grief Tending Circle on Thursday, March 3rd from 2-5pm PST / 5-8pm EST on Zoom. It’s

Pandemic Practices I Plan to Keep
Hello dear ones, Welcome to 2022. And yeah, I know it’s almost February…I’m giving myself more grace with have-to’s and deadlines, I hope you can too. Does the New Year feel new and did you celebrate it? I didn’t. I didn’t feel like celebrating the New Year at all this year because of the fires

Celebrating Light and Compost
Hello dear ones, ‘Tis the season of wonder as we celebrate the return of the light. And I’m curious how you’re doing in these holy-days. I thought I’d share a few things that I do to decrease the amount of stress that seems to pile up. And if you’re grieving, this time of year can

Grief Rituals: Online & In Person
Hello dear ones, I’ve been getting calls and emails asking if I’m doing any grief rituals lately, and I really appreciate that. Thank you! And I’m not, at least not the one that I used to do that was taught to me by my grief mentor and grief friend Sobonfu Somé. We need to keep

Halloween is Scary, It’s the Gateway to the Holidays
Hello dear ones, I love this time of year in the western hemisphere where nature reminds us that death is part of life as the season changes and plants and trees go dormant or die. But for many of you, this time of year may be especially challenging and even more so if you’re grieving

Something BIG and a Call to Go Small…
Hello dear ones, Something BIG and a call to go small… Starting here with transparency— it’s been hard to write this blog. I’ve been sad a lot lately with the state of the world and how life is these days. It seems what used to be up is down and what’s down is up.

How to Have a Personal Grief Retreat
Hello dear ones, Thanks for being here and welcome to those of you who are new. I’m writing this one on National Grief Awareness Day, 8/30/21. And when I think about grief awareness it comes down to this: Grief is more than death loss; it never goes away, we learn to live with it; and

Anxiety, Fear and the Hips.
I’ve been experiencing more fear and anxiety over the past few months, and I’m curious if you are too. It seems odd because we’re opening up and coming back to a more normal life, for which I’m grateful. However, I don’t think we’ll ever go back to where we were. At least that’s my experience

A Liminal Duet with Self and a Sunset
Happy belated summer solstice blessings to you from the northern hemisphere since I think that’s where most of you are. Thanks for being here and receiving my nuggets of wisdom about grief. And if you’re new here-welcome! And while it was just the longest day of the year, I feel a kind of dissonance as

How to Open Your Wings Through the Ripples of Loss
How to open your wings through the Ripples of Loss… I’m not quite ready to go back to normal life. Are you? Well, and what was “normal” life anyways? I’m wondering who you were before the pandemic and who you are now? How has the pandemic changed you? I’m finding it helpful to