" Loss is a big thing for everybody anywhere in their lives, but I think in these mountain communities we so often lose the people that are the fullest of life, the ones that are the brightest lights."
That's Gary Gleason. He and his late partner, Carolyn Golbus, are the authors of a book called Meeting Your Magnificence, 111 Ways to Live from Your Higher Self. Golbus passed away last July following an accident in Aspen.
Gleason: "A lot of people turn more to their spirituality, whether that's a religious or just a spiritual goal or path that forces us to go within to be able to survive that. I think community, as Jess was just saying, is super duper important. So really excited about this talk we're doing on Saturday the 15th as a way to bring together community."
In mid March, Gleason and fellow author Jessica Lockwood will be at True Nature Healing Arts for a book signing event followed by a facilitated discussion with Holistic Healing Techniques. Lockwood is the author of 8 Days, a book that chronicles the loss of her brother and husband in short succession and the love they shared.
Her husband, Chason Russell, was a well known adventure guide and Mountain Rescue Aspen Volunteer. Lockwood says that her grief wasn't the linear predictable experience that we often hear about.
Lockwood: "There's a lot of talk about Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and her stages of grief. My experience with grief did not fit as neatly in her five stages. In my experience, both losing my brother and losing my husband, I also really experienced this shame and this guilt. And I don't know if we speak to that all that often. And in my own grief journey, I learned that empathy is the antidote to shame."
For Lockwood, empathy is one of the most powerful and important things we can provide for one another.
Lockwood: "There's a difference between empathy and sympathy and how we approach grief. And I'm by no means a master at empathy. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we really just want to connect with the person who is in the depths of grief. And so trying to find perspective, trying to stay at a, you know, non judgment, trying to just really feel what the other person is feeling and sitting and listening and not giving unsolicited advice and not trying to comfort or justify what they're experiencing."
Both authors feel that open discussion around death and grief is necessary to remind our community members that they are not alone.
Gleason: "The journey back from the abyss, as it were, I think a lot of it is around community. You had asked what are the things that, that surprised me? I guess community is what surprised me. Partly living in a small community, people show up for others in times of crisis and to be at the receiving end of that is a beautiful and humbling thing."
The book signing is free and open to all. The healing workshop is ticketed and includes a candlelight walk, an intro to breathwork, and a cacao ceremony to open participants minds and hearts.
Gleason: "Every time we get triggered, that's our stuff coming to the surface to be healed. And so, uh, this talk probably should come with a little bit of a warning disclaimer. We're rated R adult audiences only, in that probably some of the conversations will be uncomfortable. And that's the point. Unless we can lean in to the uncomfortable, we can't heal. And our goal is to heal and be the most glorious versions of ourselves we can become."
Tickets and more information can be found at truenaturehealingarts.com.
