The Mother Lode of Loss
Sourcing Memories and Making Meaning — May 2025
This month Reimagine and its collaborator community offer programming for those whose mothers have died, for those experiencing estrangement or broken relationships, for those caring for mothers living with dementia or other illnesses, for bereaved mothers, and for women who have experienced infertility and miscarriage.
- How does grief show up in anticipation of holidays?
- What are the ways in which we can create new rituals and memories to honor loss?
At the turn of the last century, Anna Jarvis established Mother’s Day to memorialize her own mother who offered health education to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, provided medical relief to soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and brought former foes on the battlefield back together again in friendship. This month, Reimagine and its community of collaborators offer events and experiences that return to the holiday’s traditional roots by focusing on action for Mother’s Day: self-care, care for others, conflict resolution, peacemaking, and ensuring equity for all women.
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events
Past Events
May 16, 2025
Join Eryn Elder, grief support specialist, author, and creator of the BloomPathTM, a holistic guide for those grieving and those supporting grievers, to create space for yourself and what you need as you gently and whole-heartedly integrate your grief and loss into your life for hope and healing.
The BloomPathTM is a compass, concept, and container—lovingly crafted for those who are walking with loss and want to grow with their grief. The BloomPathTM includes six internal touch points and seven external touchpoints your grief may have with you. It will help you explore where you can access the most support and where you may feel most stuck.
I created the BloomPathTM out of my deep grief from the loss of my daughter, Evelyn Claire Elder, in 2014. I have spent the past years better trying to understand how we support those who grieve when things may feels confusing and overwhelming.
You will learn about how I created The BloomPathTM and how it may be used as a tool for hope and healing. We will walk through the six internal touch points and seven external touchpoints. From there, you will leave with a model that is uniquely yours to better understand your grief, yourself, and your wants and needs.
The BloomPathTM is for anyone who has experienced any type of loss. My personal angle is from the loss of my daughter, and my professional lens includes various loss types for adults.
This workshop is for anyone who has experienced a loss, such as of a loved one, home, job, identity, or relationship, for example. It is for those who want to re-engage with life and explore personal growth without pressure or performance.
Why Bloom?
Because blooming is not the same as being “over it.” It’s not fast. And, it’s not the same for any one individual. It is a return to growth, carrying the soil of sorrow and wounds of the past.
For many, this framework has brought clarity, compassion, self-understanding, and a commitment to love.
Eryn, MA, is a grief and loss coach, founder of Roots and Wings Grief and Loss Coaching, and author of Blooming Through Loss: Tending to Grief with the BloomPath. After the death of her first-born daughter, Evelyn, Eryn’s own path through grief became a gateway to deep transformation and sacred support work.
She believes that grief is not something to get over — but something to grow with.
Eryn creates spaces where pain is witnessed, hope is redefined, and healing is always welcome in its truest and authentic form.
Type:
Talk, Panel, & Conversation, Workshop,
This event is in honor of My deceased daughter, Evelyn, and all bereaved families
Since her passing, I have embarked on a learning journey to find healing and hope and to better understand how we can support those grieving any type of loss.
Her memory has lead and guided me to create the BloomPathTM, a transformative and holistic tool to guide grievers on their own individual journies from loss to hope.
Zoom
May 11, 2025
Here on US Mother's Day, this is a space for being with what is, in all its complexity. This is a space for exploring what it is to give nurturance, receive nurturance, and accessing a deeper level of self-nurturance.
Empathic conversation, rooted in the principles of Non-Violent Communication invites us toward a compassionate understanding of our lived experiences; creative movement allows for the embodied expression of long-held feelings. This union of empathy, embodiment, and expression brings from our heads into our hearts and toward a deeper level of self-connection and presence.
No prior movement experience is necessary, movement is optional and self-determined, and stillness is welcome.
About Sasha Soreff
For three decades, Sasha has been supporting individuals of all ages, capacities, and comfort levels to connect to their bodies and emotions, fostering a powerful sense of self-discovery and soulful expression.
Sasha weaves relational neuroscience, embodied expression, and transformational principles together to support nervous system regulation, emotional clarity, and a greater sense of freedom.
Type:
Movement & Dance, Ritual & Ceremony, Storytelling, Community Gathering, Meditation,zoom
May 8, 2025
Mother’s Day can be an especially difficult time for those of us who have lost a mother or child—whether the loss is through death or estrangement. Perhaps you feel isolated, angry, or frustrated. Perhaps you struggle with feeling down on a day heralded as a celebration. Perhaps you are just plain sad. You are not alone.
Join us for this intimate, whole-heart-affirming program, led by James Crews (who lost his mother) and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (who lost her son), which begins with the poets sharing poems and speaking openly about how writing has helped them meet grief. Then they will offer invitations for participants to do their own writing, followed by a conversation about what rises up when we turn toward our loss and write into our heartache.
This is a chance to both mourn and honor. A chance to integrate loss into our lives, weaving it into the larger tapestry of who we are and how we meet the world. It’s a chance to experience how writing can help us feel closer to the ones we have lost. It’s a chance to find nourishment through our connection with others who are also in grief.
Please note that by registering, you acknowledge that your email will be shared between Evermore and Reimagine to keep you informed about upcoming events, resources, and community initiatives.
James Crews is the editor of several bestselling anthologies, including The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, which has over 100,000 copies in print. He has been featured in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, and on NPR’s Morning Edition. James is the author of four prize-winning books of poetry—The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment—and a book of short essays, Kindness Will Save the World: Stories of Compassion and Connection. James also speaks and leads workshops on kindness, mindfulness, and writing for self-compassion. He lives with his husband on forty rocky acres in the woods of Southern Vermont.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet, teacher, speaker, and writing facilitator who co-hosts the Emerging Form podcast on the creative process. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app. Her poems have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS NewsHour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, and Carnegie Hall stage. Her most recent poetry collections are All the Honey (Samara Press, 2023) and The Unfolding (Wildhouse Publishing). In January 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore, helping others explore grief, bereavement, wonder, and love through poetry. One-word mantra: Adjust.
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 – at our own pace – actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
About Evermore
Evermore is dedicated to making the world a more livable place for all bereaved people. For over ten years, Evermore has worked with Congress, The White House, and multiple federal agencies to advance commonsense, human-centered policies for all people in our nation, including securing paid bereavement leave for our U.S. Armed Forces.
Type:
Workshop, Writing & Literature, Community Gathering, Celebration & Remembrance,Zoom
