Let’s Experience: The Wisdom of Grieving Parents
This is a digital event. You should receive information in your ticket or from the host about how to join online.
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Movement matters. The rhythmic tap of footfalls on the ground is a meditative practice that opens the mind, the heart and the soul, bringing us closer to what’s real and raw in us. Movement through the natural world is transformative. It is freeing, liberating and empowering. Moving is not a way to move from the hardest things; it is a way to move with them. Whatever your preferred form of movement is—walking, running, dancing, skipping, or jumping—some form of rhythmic, repetitive movement on a regular basis is essential to grief work. Dr. Bruce Perry’s groundbreaking insight into trauma-treatment informs our approach: Patterned, repetitive, rhythmic experiences help regulate us; they help soothe and calm our stress response.
This virtual experience leans on the power of movement, community and ritual as core elements of our journey towards enhancing coping and building stamina to move with traumatic grief.
Together, we will engage in micro-rituals that introduce us to the power of patterned, repetitive, rhythmic activities in grief work. Our group will “try on” a sacred circle experience that integrates breathwork, swaying, and a simple, yet profound, naming practice that supports integration. We will practice a gently guided mindfulness exercise, and we will share “take-aways” for practice beyond our time together.
Myra’s workshop is an interactive, dynamic, and intimate experience that includes a combination of discussion, individual reflection, and movement-based exercises. The experience is bound to leave you with a sense of community, gratitude and inspiration. All bodies are welcome and all movement is gentle and optional. Please wear comfortable clothes and bring a paper and pen for engaging in reflection prompts.
Myra Sack is the author of "Fifty-Seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter Finding Our Way," and founder and Executive Director of E-Motion, Inc. a nonprofit organization created to support community, movement and ritual to enhance coping and resilience. Myra's life changed when her older daughter, Havi, was diagnosed with a fatal neurodegenerative disease in December 2019. Havi died on January 20, 2021 of Tay-Sachs disease. Myra holds an MBA in Social Impact from Boston University, and graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College, where she captained the women's soccer team and earned All-America honors. She has devoted over a dozen years to youth serving nonprofits, including serving as Chief Program and Strategy Officer at Squashbusters, Inc. and leading program development across Latin America for Soccer Without Borders. A writer, speaker, and certified Compassionate Bereavement Care provider, Myra serves on the Board of the Courageous Parents Network and lives in Boston, MA with her husband Matt, their second daughter, Kaia, and son Ezra. Her writing has appeared in numerous national outlets including the Boston Globe Spotlight, Today.com, and Upworthy.
About the Series “The Wisdom of Grieving Parents: Living with Love and Loss”
Children who lose parents are “orphans”, but there’s no universal term in English for a father, mother, or guardian who outlives their child. Perhaps it’s an indication of how catastrophic this loss truly is. Often we say “there are no words” to express condolences to bereaved parents. But in fact, there ARE words you can offer and actions you can take for those in pain.
How do we as grieving parents lean into loss when our minds tell us to avoid and protect?
How can friends and family members show up for the bereaved along their never ending grief journey?
The series will explore child loss across all ages, from infancy to adolescence to adulthood. Many of the following topics include:
- The Lifelong Impact of Child Loss, particularly how one navigates grief when children of friends and family reach milestones and celebrate life-cycle events
- Complex Relationships: Addressing the added layers of grief when the relationship was complicated or estranged
- Redefining Family, Marriage, and Self: Navigating shifting family roles, particularly those of parents and other children
- Anticipated vs. Sudden Loss: Examining the differences between anticipated and sudden child loss and their respective grieving processes
- Stigmatized Loss: Addressing the unique grief experiences related to deaths by suicide, overdose, incarceration, and other circumstances associated with societal taboos.
A full discussion of perinatal loss or infertility merits a separate series in order to provide the focus that these grief experiences deserve.
Guest speakers—storytellers, authors, artists, scholars, and grief educators and activists—will provide practical tools and support. They will guide participants in maintaining connection with children through storytelling, movement, and ritual, finding strength alone and in community, and developing healthy coping mechanisms through mindfulness, creative expression, and the creation of legacy projects. We'll also explore the potential for growth and transformation in the aftermath of loss.
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together to create a more compassionate world. We support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
