The Grief Letters with Claire: July 2025
Grief is Resistance
Hello Dear Ones,
Welcome to the July 2025 issue of The Grief Letters with Claire. Thanks for being here.
In Ask Grief, Grief is asked simply, “What would you have us know?” In Journal Prompts, you’re invited to be with the grief that is here now. This month’s Grief Resource is our next Grief Reads schedule for summer of Bearing the Unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore, PhD. And finally, a Grief Offering: summer’s Grief Church schedule (registration & information below)
Thanks for joining me as I attempt to voice all that grief means to me, all that grief can mean to you, and as I try to honor the sacred practice of grief tending.
Ask Grief: What Would You Have Us Know?
Dear Grief,
What would you have us know today? In these grief-soaked times?
Sincerely,
Just Wondering About Grief Today
Dear Wondering,
How beautiful! What an invitation.
I would have you know how loved you are by those you grieve and by that which you grieve. (Yes, your old house misses you and loves you, too). But grief is not pushing a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down. That’s not grief. In grief, you are tending a beautiful garden overrun by weeds, you are combing through dusty and disorganized archives, you are digging for buried treasure in a dark cave. Though the project of grief if never-ending, it is not repetitive; each layer of grief that you grieve uncovers something new in you, in that which you’ve loved and lost, and in the world as you see it. You will never stop being a griever and the same wounds will need witness again & again. But in that process is transformation.
To yield to grief, to yield to your broken heart, is to disrupt millennia of conditioning. The modern project of empire stole grief just as it stole magic, art, and the natural world. There is no subjugation inside transformation and the power of renewal is held within the grieving process. So of course grief had to go: to be tamed, corralled, and pathologized. Stripped of it’s vitality and community witness. Because if to grieve is not just to break but to be remade, then it is indeed sacred work. (Interesting, isn’t it, how messy the sacred is—birth, death, love, grief?). And empire loves few things as much as it loves to co-opt or malign the sacred, especially the divine in the mundane.
So here we are. In these grief-soaked times. But not without ballast: to grieve is an act of resistance, of insistence.
Grief in these times says: this beautiful body houses love for that which it lost & it aches for that loss. Grief as resistance says, Tenderness is not weakness (and is weakness really so bad, anyway?). To keep your heart malleable to grief is to keep it malleable to change. And what is liberation if not change built upon broken hearts? Your grief is not an indulgence or a distraction from the work. Grief is the work, grief is resistance.
And what if your broken heart is personal? What if personal loss, personal collapse, is overwhelming you right now? What if the cries of the world feel drowned out by the wails you carry in your own heart?
Well then, dear child, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be in grief. You must grieve the loss that’s breaking your heart right now, knowing and trusting that to grieve is to be human. There are few other projects more significant today than restoring and reclaiming your collective humanity. All grief transforms. All transformation seeks the collective. So be human today. Grieve what you’ve lost. Grieve what you never got in the first place.
Trust: all grief is resistance. Your grief is resistance. The world needs your tears. Specifically. Needs your humanity today, specifically.
Love always,
Grief
Journal Prompts:
I suggest lighting a candle and taking a few grounding breaths before writing on these:
Dear Heartbreak, what would you have me know today?
Broken Heart, what is here now?
Today, my grief knows…
Right now, my broken heart wants…
Grief Resource: Summer communal Grief Reads
In winter, we did a communal Grief Reads of Francis Weller’s book The Wild Edge of Sorrow. For summer, our Grief Reads is Bearing the Unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore, PhD. I love that this book is divided into eloquent, bite-sized chapters; it has felt like a very doable daily read. Here’s the gentle structure and intent:
A weekly reading schedule and reflection will be sent out each weekend
You’re invited to comment on these reflections with your insights as well as respond to others. I will be responding regularly to any comments <3
Near the Autumnal Equinox on Sunday 9/21, I’ll host a virtual book chat with time for guided reflection/grief writing practice. Register here.
Weekly Reading Schedule:
Week One (7/14-7/2
0): Prologue-Chapter 5
Week Two (7/21-7/27): Chapters 6-11
Week Three (7/28-8/3): Chapters 12-17
Week Four (8/4-8/10): Chapters 18-23
Week Five (8/11-8/17): Chapters 24-29
Week Six (8/18-8/24): Chapters 30-35
Week Seven (8/25-8/31): Chapters 36-41
Week Eight (9/1-9/7): Chapters 42-46
Week Nine (9/8-9/14): Chapter 47-Epilogue
Grief Offering: Grief Church For All the Griefs
Grief Church returns from our June break. Registration is open for July & August meetings. The theme will remain For All the Griefs. The invitation: bring personal and systemic griefs, broken dreams and broken hearts for a time of collective witness. Once you register, you can select all the instances or only some in the series, whatever works for your schedule. Register here. (You can register for all or only a few in the series, whatever works for you). Grief Church is freely offered. Donations via my Grief Work Library wish list are welcome but not expected.
What is Grief Church? Many faith and cultural practices in the modern world ignore the role of grief tending to our well-being so Grief Church will serve as such a space. The practices and liturgy in Grief Church are meant to be incorporated into any faith and/or wellness practice participants already engage in. Think of this like a sacred container for your grief and a time to be with other grievers. We trust grief in Grief Church so feel free to bring your tears and leave your advice/judgments at the door; we believe in presence, not perfection. Each month there will be a theme that will connect the poems, songs, and art shared along with a brief grief message. There will be time for reflection and sharing in a comment-free space.
A Reminder: What I Believe About This Grief Space/Newsletter
I believe in tending to grief, not healing grief. I don’t believe grief ever “heals” the way our body heals from a cold, for instance. Grief remains. So, we tend to it.
I don’t believe any specific grief is any more important or sad or valid than another. This space is for all the griefs.
This is a space for openness and wonder, for acknowledging the precarity of being human. Right and wrong, good and bad in the context of grief is meaningless. Grief is, we are.
In grief,
Claire
Left with hope after writing through the prompts, thank you.