I am interested in attending. However, I am curious about some of the past-tense language here that seems to imply Covid is “over”. Particularly as infections are currently surging around the country. Many have been disabled by Long Covid, and many more will continue to be. While there is certainly community grieving to be done for the acute 2020 experience, I am wondering if it here is room in an event seeking closure for the reality that this is an ongoing lived experience for many?
Thanks Leah. I am viewing it in the context of very acute care healthcare. In that setting, it has sort of been absorbed into a variety of respiratory illnesses that we manage, and that the collective experience of isolation is over. You're right, the way I'm thinking about it isn't really that it's over, but integrating our experiences into whatever our new normal has become.
I hear you. While I am exceedingly grateful to have left the clinical practice of Emergency Medicine before the pandemic began and therefore do not share the experience of healthcare workers during that time, I am one of many who now lives with Long Covid inside a culture that seems to want to pretend it didn't happen, is no big deal or is somehow over. I am gently extending an invitation to consider that there are many for which the experience of isolation is not over, because we cannot risk another infection and/or do not want to contribute to a mass disabling event. Holding space for that daily reality is an important part of integration too.
Thanks Leah. I am viewing it in the context of very acute care healthcare. In that setting, it has sort of been absorbed into a variety of respiratory illnesses that we manage, and that the collective experience of isolation is over. You're right, the way I'm thinking about it isn't really that it's over, but integrating our experiences into whatever our new normal has become.
I'm glad it didn't pack the same punch as the recession for you. These events have so much to do with our stages of life, how hard they hit, don't they?
Yes, it would work, I just ordered new sage to burn. Covid is an event which is history, this will last 80 yrs, because history repeats. Not big on zoom, but you want communication. I understand.
I totally understand the zoom hesitation. I almost didn't host it because of that/not having a critical mass of people interested in these kind of things locally. I'm trying to mitigate the "ugh, zoom" feeling by only including the parts are needed to build a shared field and need to be witnessed by other people (which should take 1-1.5 hours), then breaking for ritual, nature experience, and creativity, only then reconvening for another hour or so on zoom. Still more than ideal, but hopefully will be worth it. If you are interested in joining in, please fill out this form so I can contact you with more details early next week. https://forms.gle/k2E6uC3guyWYZPBn9
I may be interested, depending on the timing. I was widowed a couple years before Covid and trying to take care of a toddler, and while I thought I had dealt with the grief, I hadn't dealt with the isolation. I had some psychosis-like experiences that I haven't been able to write or talk about.
You're most welcome. That is so much to hold! So far it sounds like there is a good bit of interest, so I am hopeful there will be more than one session and hopefully one will fit your schedule. If there are particular days of the week that work best, I'd love to know.
Any weekday would probably be fine, it's more about timing within the day. I'm in mountain time and wouldn't be able to get on Zoom before 8:30am or after 5pm.
So beautiful, Amy! I can't wait to see how this ritual unfolds. It sounds amazing! I love this idea of holding ceremony to intentionally metabolize stuck grief and other energies wrought by covid. And to integrate the initiations. That is SO important. It's not so much that covid is over, though, but that the deer-in-the-headlights frozen panic that encompassed us all can maybe now be metabolized and integrated some. (For many, life is forever unsafe now in a way it wasn't before and I think it's important to honor that too.) Because so much of my work involves healing the dead, your beautiful offering here has inspired me to think of ways to focus more specifically on those who died from covid. So many people in the early months of it died isolated from loved ones and this surely had a major impact on their transition. Thank you so much for your amazing work in the world! You are a healing force and an inspiration. 💖
Thank you Jenna! There are so few ways to integrate the intensity of our collective experiences in COVID, and of course one day is just a drop in the bucket, but hopefully it moves a stone that was blocking the path to the next place. I agree COVID is definitely not over, but to me it feels like as a collective experience that everyone has shared, that something has shifted and the experiences are really diverging into more individualized experiences that are harder to relate to without explicit sharing.
This is super insightful, Amy, thank you! The collective vs the individual experience. I hadn't been thinking in that framework, but I love it and I can feel it's really shifted something for me in my general mindset. Not sure exactly what yet, but feels powerful. Thank you so much for this! 🤗
Oh, I'm glad! I think a lot of that perspective came from here in the comments. Just how much variability there is in how much headspace COVID must take up for people depending on health status sor caretaking responsibility or lingering trauma or what have you.
Thanks for the offer Amy. Luckily for me I do not have much trauma from the lock-downs but if I'd stayed in the healthcare sector, guaranteed I would. I was burned out and over it (the 'healthcare' sector) well before then and I had the luxury of leaving the field. I also had/have a stable home life tucked away in a little corner of the world. I'm very thankful for what I have! I also see how deeply the 'healthcare' sector injures people, especially those dedicated and brave souls working there. I can't begin to imagine how traumatic COVID would have been, how helpless, overworked and trapped healthcare workers were. Sending everyone affected by COVID much love!!!!
I'm glad your pandemic experience was relatively smooth. What did you do in healthcare previously? Trapped is definitely the word for it, and you're so overwhelmed you can't strategize how to get out.
I was a perioperative nurse (scrub/scout). Before that I worked in international development project management. After nursing I worked as a project coordinator in Chronic Disease Management, then project manager for the Division of Medicine in a state hospital. The culture was so toxic the hospital was constantly in the news, the Director of Medicine was a corporate sociopath and the entire system was a train wreck. I'm so glad I no longer work in health care or for anyone else for that matter (have my own company now, not related to health care).
Wonderful! As we've discussed before educators were definitely put in some impossible spots. I hope our experience will help you feel that you're not carrying it alone.
I would be very interested in being part of this. Lost my mom and dad to COVID in Jan 2021, and I've been metabolizing that grief in various ways, but it's always felt weird to me that this was such a large collective experience that has rarely been acknowledged in that way.
they were in an assisted living care facility. actually i was able to be with them, as long as i wore full protective gear. so that was a blessing… i know many people weren’t able to do that.
Oh, I'm glad you were able to be with them. Still, I'm sure losing them both at the same time must have been tremendously difficult and at a time when communal grief was not really possible.
I am interested in attending. However, I am curious about some of the past-tense language here that seems to imply Covid is “over”. Particularly as infections are currently surging around the country. Many have been disabled by Long Covid, and many more will continue to be. While there is certainly community grieving to be done for the acute 2020 experience, I am wondering if it here is room in an event seeking closure for the reality that this is an ongoing lived experience for many?
Thanks Leah. I am viewing it in the context of very acute care healthcare. In that setting, it has sort of been absorbed into a variety of respiratory illnesses that we manage, and that the collective experience of isolation is over. You're right, the way I'm thinking about it isn't really that it's over, but integrating our experiences into whatever our new normal has become.
I hear you. While I am exceedingly grateful to have left the clinical practice of Emergency Medicine before the pandemic began and therefore do not share the experience of healthcare workers during that time, I am one of many who now lives with Long Covid inside a culture that seems to want to pretend it didn't happen, is no big deal or is somehow over. I am gently extending an invitation to consider that there are many for which the experience of isolation is not over, because we cannot risk another infection and/or do not want to contribute to a mass disabling event. Holding space for that daily reality is an important part of integration too.
Thanks Leah. I am viewing it in the context of very acute care healthcare. In that setting, it has sort of been absorbed into a variety of respiratory illnesses that we manage, and that the collective experience of isolation is over. You're right, the way I'm thinking about it isn't really that it's over, but integrating our experiences into whatever our new normal has become.
Covid was not a difficult event for me and my family. We counted those gifts everyday of the pandemic. The Great Recession - that was our darkness.
I'm glad it didn't pack the same punch as the recession for you. These events have so much to do with our stages of life, how hard they hit, don't they?
This is incredible. Love it. You're a trailblazer and you're much needed in the world, Amy. ❤️
Thanks so much, Mariana! I love the idea of being a trailblazer :) I hope you'll be able to join us, I know you have your own journey to share.
I would love to attend. I was seeing hospice patients at their homes during this time, and never processed my fears
Glad to have you join us. I'm sure you carry fear and grief from that time, almost of us do.
Yes, it would work, I just ordered new sage to burn. Covid is an event which is history, this will last 80 yrs, because history repeats. Not big on zoom, but you want communication. I understand.
I totally understand the zoom hesitation. I almost didn't host it because of that/not having a critical mass of people interested in these kind of things locally. I'm trying to mitigate the "ugh, zoom" feeling by only including the parts are needed to build a shared field and need to be witnessed by other people (which should take 1-1.5 hours), then breaking for ritual, nature experience, and creativity, only then reconvening for another hour or so on zoom. Still more than ideal, but hopefully will be worth it. If you are interested in joining in, please fill out this form so I can contact you with more details early next week. https://forms.gle/k2E6uC3guyWYZPBn9
Done
Wonderful, glad to have you!
This is a wonderful idea.
Thank you! I hope you can join us!
What a good idea, Amy.
Thank you Beth, I hope you can join us.
I may be interested, depending on the timing. I was widowed a couple years before Covid and trying to take care of a toddler, and while I thought I had dealt with the grief, I hadn't dealt with the isolation. I had some psychosis-like experiences that I haven't been able to write or talk about.
You're most welcome. That is so much to hold! So far it sounds like there is a good bit of interest, so I am hopeful there will be more than one session and hopefully one will fit your schedule. If there are particular days of the week that work best, I'd love to know.
Any weekday would probably be fine, it's more about timing within the day. I'm in mountain time and wouldn't be able to get on Zoom before 8:30am or after 5pm.
Sounds good. I had been aiming for 9 am Central, but I have some flexibility with that, just trying to tuck it into school time :)
I’m interested!
Wonderful! Am I right that a weekend would work best for you?
Yes, usually.
I think this is an excellent idea, and (depending on the logistics) would be interested in attending!
Thank you. We'd love to have you. Are there any particular days of the week that work better for you?
Thanks! Weekends would probably work better for me, but I can also make weekdays work.
Cool, if there is enough demand, I’ll probably try to do one of each.
So beautiful, Amy! I can't wait to see how this ritual unfolds. It sounds amazing! I love this idea of holding ceremony to intentionally metabolize stuck grief and other energies wrought by covid. And to integrate the initiations. That is SO important. It's not so much that covid is over, though, but that the deer-in-the-headlights frozen panic that encompassed us all can maybe now be metabolized and integrated some. (For many, life is forever unsafe now in a way it wasn't before and I think it's important to honor that too.) Because so much of my work involves healing the dead, your beautiful offering here has inspired me to think of ways to focus more specifically on those who died from covid. So many people in the early months of it died isolated from loved ones and this surely had a major impact on their transition. Thank you so much for your amazing work in the world! You are a healing force and an inspiration. 💖
Thank you Jenna! There are so few ways to integrate the intensity of our collective experiences in COVID, and of course one day is just a drop in the bucket, but hopefully it moves a stone that was blocking the path to the next place. I agree COVID is definitely not over, but to me it feels like as a collective experience that everyone has shared, that something has shifted and the experiences are really diverging into more individualized experiences that are harder to relate to without explicit sharing.
This is super insightful, Amy, thank you! The collective vs the individual experience. I hadn't been thinking in that framework, but I love it and I can feel it's really shifted something for me in my general mindset. Not sure exactly what yet, but feels powerful. Thank you so much for this! 🤗
Oh, I'm glad! I think a lot of that perspective came from here in the comments. Just how much variability there is in how much headspace COVID must take up for people depending on health status sor caretaking responsibility or lingering trauma or what have you.
What an amazing and generous thing to do Amy!
Thank you Genevieve. We'd love to have you join us, but I know time zones can be tricky in your neck of the woods.
Thanks for the offer Amy. Luckily for me I do not have much trauma from the lock-downs but if I'd stayed in the healthcare sector, guaranteed I would. I was burned out and over it (the 'healthcare' sector) well before then and I had the luxury of leaving the field. I also had/have a stable home life tucked away in a little corner of the world. I'm very thankful for what I have! I also see how deeply the 'healthcare' sector injures people, especially those dedicated and brave souls working there. I can't begin to imagine how traumatic COVID would have been, how helpless, overworked and trapped healthcare workers were. Sending everyone affected by COVID much love!!!!
I'm glad your pandemic experience was relatively smooth. What did you do in healthcare previously? Trapped is definitely the word for it, and you're so overwhelmed you can't strategize how to get out.
I was a perioperative nurse (scrub/scout). Before that I worked in international development project management. After nursing I worked as a project coordinator in Chronic Disease Management, then project manager for the Division of Medicine in a state hospital. The culture was so toxic the hospital was constantly in the news, the Director of Medicine was a corporate sociopath and the entire system was a train wreck. I'm so glad I no longer work in health care or for anyone else for that matter (have my own company now, not related to health care).
Ugh, I'm glad you found something that works for you. Hope I can do the same.
I hope that for you too Amy!
I am interested. 💗
Wonderful! Would you be willing to DM me your email address so I can send you more specific information as the plans fall into place?
I’m also in, as an educator. Thank you for thinking of and putting energy into this idea.
Wonderful! As we've discussed before educators were definitely put in some impossible spots. I hope our experience will help you feel that you're not carrying it alone.
What an incredible idea. I'm in!
Thanks Christine! I'm excited you'll join us.
I would be very interested in being part of this. Lost my mom and dad to COVID in Jan 2021, and I've been metabolizing that grief in various ways, but it's always felt weird to me that this was such a large collective experience that has rarely been acknowledged in that way.
Oh, what a gutting loss, and major upheaval in your life! I'm assuming you weren't able to be with them in the hospital either?
they were in an assisted living care facility. actually i was able to be with them, as long as i wore full protective gear. so that was a blessing… i know many people weren’t able to do that.
Oh, I'm glad you were able to be with them. Still, I'm sure losing them both at the same time must have been tremendously difficult and at a time when communal grief was not really possible.