Living in the Ashes: Communal Grief and the North Bay Fires

Part of the Healing Circles Series

Francis Weller with Host Irwin Keller

During the wildfires of October, we saw radical changes in the physical and psychic landscape of Northern California. The fires that began late Sunday night, October 8th, quickly engulfed homes and dreams, woodlands, and security. Many of us awoke in the middle of the night to the acrid smell of smoke, sensing that something was wrong. Only later, with the dawn light, were we able to see the extent of this disturbing truth. Everyone has been affected, whether we lost a loved one, a home, a beloved pet, our place of employment, a trail that we cherished, or simply our sense of faith in the ordinary assurances of daily life. We are living in a collective field of sorrows that will take a long time to metabolize.

Join New School Host Irwin Keller and Francis Weller in sharing thoughts to help us tend our soul during traumatic times. Through poetry, song, simple ritual, and our mutual vulnerability, a sudden village will be created to hold what we cannot hold alone.

Listen (audio only)

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Francis Weller

Francis is a writer and soul activist who has worked as a psychotherapist for 40 years. He’s the author of many books and projects including the beloved grief text, The Wild Edge of Sorrow. Francis is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program. His most recent collection, In the Absence of the Ordinary, was released in August. Photo: Danielle Cohen

Rabbi Irwin Keller

Host

Irwin has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County since 2008, a post he took while still writing and performing with the San Francisco-based Kinsey Sicks, known as America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. His legal advocacy work included authoring the City of Chicago’s first comprehensive human rights law, in effect since 1989, and serving as the Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area. Photo: Adam Shemper.