The Pathless Path: On Sorrow and Safety and Doves

Podcast Episode One
(Originally recorded April 2019)

Highlights from Podcast Episode One:

“When we can’t be true to what is in ourselves and safely reveal ourselves to one another, then we are split into two or into a thousand pieces more. When grief is not shared or witnessed or seen, it breaks
the human heart more…

“Give sorrow words, the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er fraught heart and bids it break” ~ William Shakespeare.

“Sometimes I think the collective grievers of this world weep for the unshed tears of others who do not know how to be with grief. We weep for their losses that remain ungrieved, pushed aside, disenfranchised in this world. And what a world it is…

“And often the tears are not pure grief. They are mixed with love and some strange joy that I don’t even understand but other people have said they sense in me when I cry so deeply.”

Companioning Philosophy
Dr. Wolfelt’s 11 Tenets of Caring for the Bereaved
by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.
www.centerforloss.com

1. Companioning is about being present to another person’s pain; it is not about taking away the pain.

2. Companioning is about going to the wilderness of the soul with another human being; it is not about thinking you are responsible for finding the way out.

3. Companioning is about honoring the spirit; it is not about focusing on the intellect.

4. Companioning is about listening with the heart; it is not about analyzing with the head.

5. Companioning is about bearing witness to the struggles of others; it is not about judging or directing these struggles.

6. Companioning is about walking alongside; it is not about leading or being led.

7. Companioning means discovering the gifts of sacred silence; it does not mean filling up every moment with words.

8. Companioning the bereaved is about being still; it is not about frantic movement forward.

9. Companioning is about respecting disorder and confusion; it is not about imposing order and logic.

10. Companioning is about learning from others; it is not about teaching them.

11. Companioning is about curiosity; it is not about expertise.

 

You can also listen to this podcast and see the episode notes for this episode at: https://elizabethwelles.com/podcast/