from a Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) Climate Stewards Workshop. By Jennifer Elam with Sue Edwards (elder), Olivia Brangan, Ruth Darlington, Jackie Bonomo, Patricia Finley

On July 27, 2022, a flood hit 14 counties of eastern KY and 45 people were killed and thousands had no homes, having watched their homes float down the river. Many of those places are places I have visited such as Hindman, KY. As I listened to the reports of children being washed out of their parents’ arms, and then their parents being washed down the river and drowning, the climate crisis hit a new peak of horror and resulted in grief for me personally. I could not imagine how traumatized those people must be, if I was sitting there sobbing and did not know anyone personally that died or had loved ones die. This is a taste of my connection to this topic of climate grief.

In November of 2023, I was invited by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to lead a grief workshop for their climate stewards group. That group committed to unifying by addressing the climate catastrophe as individuals, meetings, and organizations as “witnesses.” You can read more about their commitments at pym.org. 

On November 9, 2023, we did a workshop to address the grief experienced by those witnessing climate changing. “Climate catastrophes” may be the most accurate language. But, how do we address grief and trauma of this magnitude? 

The climate stewards asked questions and came together to address them. I want to share some of those queries with you and hope that others will be motivated to address grief related to climate issues together because the work is just too hard to do alone. In addition, when dealing with grief and trauma, (co)creativity becomes important. We did art together. I will share with you a couple of pieces of my art and some poetic musings that have come (below). Group activities were powerful and I share some of those below.

Hope is a discipline, an act of faithfulness. Despair comes naturally and we need to work together to get beyond it. For most of us, our culture does not provide a safe place to grieve. We have to build those safe places together. There is power in lamentation; we need to grieve to heal.  Matthew 5:4 says, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted” – in Greek, this is a verb in the indicative mood=statement of fact.

Hope is a discipline, an act of faithfulness. Despair comes naturally and we need to work together to get beyond it.

For years, what I have found most helpful in getting beyond grief is co-creation with our Creator, however you experience God. The forms my co-creation has taken are in writing, arts and movement (walking in nature and dancing of many kinds). I have also found that I had to create dances for the anxiety, depression and even rage that comes along with grief. Here is a bit of how that goes. When my body shakes, I say, “OK body, you want to shake, let’s shake really well” and we shake a LOT with large movements.  Or “OK body, you are feeling so down, let’s get down.” And we roll on the floor. Or “ok body, you are feeling rage, let’s get it out” and we move and dance a rage. Movement is a huge help for me. I always hear, especially since I have gotten older, “in order to keep moving, we have to move.” I can’t handle all those medications offered, but I find that moving my body, moves the emotions and helps them to move on, to elsewhere. (Hint: don’t do this in front of just anyone. Not everyone will understand and you can get in trouble). I also offer you a musing about my dance with grief and other difficult emotions. Writing has been very important to my well-being from a very young age, as I did not talk in my childhood (no one believes that about me now).

Dancing with Grief, Becoming Energized

I am a dancer.

I was first traumatized as a toddler and became mute as a child.

My life story could not dance as it unfolded.

Dancing was seen as “sin” by those around me.

Once I learned to dance and move, beyond the grief and “sin,”

I could speak. I grew a voice.

I was told to “obey” authorities, 

and everyone was the authority;

so, there was no me, as a separate human being.

I existed only for the collective, 

and the power was solely in the hands 

of those given “authority”. 

I had no God-given power to stand in; it had been taken.

I could not speak. I had no voice.

“Sin” and “authority” had 

become distortions in my life; 

and now, isn’t this what has happened to our world?

“Sin” used to distort power and take mine, as God gave me.

“Obey authority” used to distort and take the power of many.

How do we respond NOW?

We learn to dance, literally and as metaphor.

We learn that each of us, every last one of us

has been given grief and the gift of power from God

that we are to use, to better our World.

How do we use that power?

I/we are to stand firmly in that power as God gave it to me/us,

share it when we have extra, when others need a bit more,

not giving up what is ours in God’s order, but using it, 

acknowledging the infinite supply when shared, 

as in the Loaves and Fishes,

bringing each individual and the world 

to Radical Equality and Freedom.

We dance with each other.

We give our lives to co-create with our Creator.

We build a new vision, a new movement based on that Vision.

What is that Vision?

The Vision begins with commitment to Service,

committing our lives and lifestyles to building a better world,

seeing our core values, and assuring that our actions start there.

We dance with God.

Dancing with ourselves to mend our own shattered hearts, 

claiming what is rightly our own and letting go of all that is not;

dancing with each other to help mend the broken hearts of others,

living a life within a community of Love and Respect;

Dancing with the world to build lives and lifestyles that support 

a New World, New Life for our World.

Dancing with Ourselves, Each Other, 

Our Community/Country/World,

and Dancing with God, standing in the flow of the Holy Spirit

with Continuing Revelation, where the energy for Co-creation with Spirit is infinitely available, for the asking and commitment.

I stand in the center of the room, ready to make these commitments; 

Commitments to Co-Create with the Creator,

bringing Love and New Life, Lives with Possibilities, 

Evolution beyond Distortions, Grief, Trauma, and Self-Destruction.

The micro and the macro learn to Dance; 

The personal becomes the universal; 

the Universal becomes the Personal.

Will you join me in the dance?