Let's Take Action: Development in Times of Dread
For those expecting and preparing for loss, join a conversation with writer, filmmaker teacher, and healer Darnell Lamont Walker and grief expert Claire Bidwell Smith. Both will offer guidance in taking steps – both large and small – towards learning, transformation, and action when faced with adversity.
Following a discussion, we invite you to join small peer-led breakout room sessions guided by the following prompts:
- How are you staying present and taking care of yourself as you navigate anticipatory grief?
- What steps can you take to carry your grief with intention in order to continue to grow, heal, and thrive?
[These prompts relate to two stages in the Conscious Grieving framework developed by Claire Bidwell Smith.]
Darnell Lamont Walker is an Emmy-Nominated children's television writer who understands the power of representation and joy, creating content in hopes that all children get the opportunity to not only see themselves, but see how incredible they are and can be. And he’s a death doula, helping individuals and communities move through grief and toward healing and happiness. Currently living between the Chattahoochee National Forest of Georgia and Johannesburg, South Africa, Darnell’s goal with his is to continue to support children, adults, and whole communities around the world through the building of safe and happy spaces.
Recognized as one of today’s foremost experts on grief, Claire Bidwell Smith is a licensed therapist, international speaker, and the author of five books published in 22 countries. Led by her own experience in grief and fueled by her work in hospice and private practice, Claire strives to provide support for all kinds of people experiencing all kinds of loss. Claire has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Scientific American, Goop, Oprah and many more outlets. Her most recent books Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief and Conscious Grieving have provided groundbreaking and transformative approaches to the process of grief.
About the Series “The Long Goodbye: Anticipatory Grief in Anxious Times”
Election season is a heightened period of collective dread and uncertainty. Anxiety over changes in political systems are often compounded by other kinds of impending loss. As individuals, we may be caring for a loved one in hospice, managing a debilitating illness, or facing our own mortality. Shared experiences of anticipatory grief include eco-anxiety over climate change and neighborhood transformations caused by cultural displacement and gentrification. How do we transform sorrow, helplessness, frustration, and anger – as well as other feelings associated with the promise of loss – into a commitment to action?
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 in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
