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The soul's ability to nourish itself lies in the heart

~Aristotle

It takes courage to remember and turn towards our fragility and sorrows. The reality of 9/11 and its aftermath brings this home on so many levels. September is a month to remember all we have, and all we have lost, in our own lives and within our world at large.

This in-depth Atlantic article by Jennifer Senior takes a look at all the ways grief rippled through a family over the last two decades after the loss of a beloved son, brother and fiancee on 9/11. It is heartbreaking and sobering and finds a way to honor everyone involved. It also tells the story of the three words that became their north star Life loves on.

It's an important read. You can find it here.

Since 2016, Peyo, a former dressage horse and a beautiful stallion, has often visited terminal patients in a Calais hospital. He chooses who to spend time with on any given visit and often ends up reducing patients' distress so much that meds can be significantly reduced, allowing a more peaceful departure.

You can click on the video above, and find more details here on this fact checking site with articles and Les Sabots du Coeur's (The Hooves of the Heart) social media accounts.

Grief is coming out of the closet in many ways, and online communities are growing rapidly to support the experience of loss; to build a source of comfort for the bereaved. The Dinner Party is one of these, a worldwide community of people in their 20’s and 30’s who know what it’s like to lose someone and aren’t afraid to talk about it.

Many people by now are familiar with the concept of the Five Stages of Grief, yet few know that it started out as the 5 stages of dying. This intriguing detail is just the tip of the iceberg in Radio Lab's riveting podcast, Queen of Dying, focusing on the life and work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the psychiatrist, humanitarian and hospice pioneer who codified the 5 stages and went far beyond that in the years to come.

Listen to the podcast here.

Go to the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation website here for more information on their ongoing work.

Mallory Mosner writes on Medium about the lack of any Covid protocols in an esteemed Ayurvedic practitioner program she was eagerly anticipating. From there she walks through the many intersections of conspiracy theories with the myriad communities under the ‘wellness’ umbrella. It's a fascinating look at the ingenuity of our death denial and the vulnerabilities that it creates.

You can find the article here.

After undergoing successful cancer treatment, artist Guadalupe Maravilla started using gongs in his shamanic sculptures or healing machines as he refers to them.

Of Mayan descent, Maravilla was familiar with the history of the ancient Mesoamerican mystics (and those of Egypt, Greece and the Himalayas) who were attuned to the medicinal power of sound and harmonic vibrations.

You can read more about this transformational installation here and watch a short documentary of a sound bath filmed by Art 21 here.

WandaVision, an episodic series from Marvel Studios streaming on Disney+, features two superheroes in what ends up being an elaborate conceit conjured by Wanda who is struggling to manage her grief over the loss of her partner, Vision.

The writers very specifically structured the arc of the show to mirror Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ groundbreaking delineation of the stages of grief reflecting the trauma of loss and the journey of navigating it.

You can find the LA Times interview with the showrunners here, and watch the trailer here.

Video games have long offered an opportunity to process grief and death. The pandemic has only intensified this genre of game play, offering people community and ritual on a virtual platform. This, of course, has become increasingly relevant when we have been deprived of the more traditional, in person customs that help us integrate loss.

You can find a rundown of various titles in this Wired article by Jennifer Stavros here.

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