Community Event
Grief Ritual
Date: Sunday June 15th, 2025
Location: 1400 Coleman Ave Santa Clara, CA 95050
Time: 1:00 P.M.- 3:00 P.M.
Reclaim Joy Medical invites you to join us for a special grief ritual, offering a space to honor and process your feelings of loss in a supportive environment.
What to Expect
Background
Please confirm your free RSVP here.
This ritual exercise provides a simple, respectful, whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world, and for recognizing its authority and the solidarity it can bring.
We will be holding a Stone Grief Ritual, as described in Francis Weller’s book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow. After an invocation and mention of the Five Gates of Grief, participants will take turns putting a stone in their hand, naming a sorrow or grief that is weighing them down, and after naming the sorrow, will place the stone in a central bucket of water.
At the end of the ceremony, participants will be invited to place their stones in a bucket of water at the office, symbolically washing them clean. You may deposit as many stones as you need, each one representing a sorrow you wish to release. Pens and water-dissolvable paper will also be available for writing down names or descriptions of things you’re ready to let go of.
The ceremony will be followed by light refreshments and water/tea.
Please confirm your free RSVP here.
The Grief Ritual
Dr. Freerksen acted as a guide at a previous, indoor ritual at Reclaim Joy Medical offices which borrowed heavily from Joanna Macy’s work. Her suggested ritual can be viewed here. Below is a photo from that ritual.
“…A stone, dead leaves, a thick stick, and an empty bowl.”
Items used in our last grief ritual.