A Care Package For You
Acknowledging Global Grief
with Mirabai Starr & Willow Brook
A refuge for those who are grieving for the world
Your replay and resources are below
Review of our time together
In our community hour, we joined our broken hearts with the heart of the world and creatively envisioned our way to serve as instruments of peace.
Your replay and resources are available below
Readings shared in Acknowledging Global Grief:
"She Who Hears the Cries of the World" by Mirabai Starr from Mother of God Similiar to Fire
“Those Whom We Do Not Know” by Naomi Shihab Nye, from Red Suitcase
"After a Sleepless Night Worrying About the World" by Elaine Sutton, from A Reckless Insistence on Beauty
Songs shared in Acknowledging Global Grief:
May This Body Be A Bridge by Te Martin
Open My Heart by Alexis Sunshine Rose
Action Items: Pray With Our Feet
Pray with your voice
As unfathomable violence continues, we pray with our feet. Each call to a local representative and conversation we have can be a prayer. Join us in daily calls to representatives to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
This can be done with the app 5 calls.
Places to Donate
Donations are desperately needed. Here are some places to share our resources.
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund operates relief programs for children in Gaza, where half of the population is under 18.
Doctors Without Borders provides independent, impartial urgently needed medical humanitarian aid in moments of crisis and conflict.
Middle East Children’s Alliance provides emergency assistance to families who have fled their homes and emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics.
Merhav Marpeh מרחב מרפא provides immediate and integrative support to trauma survivors of the Hamas attack in Israel.
Catharsis Holistic Healing needs funds to send therapists into Gaza as soon as the bombing is over. They also run a program for Palestinian children that combines yoga, meditation and creative art therapy to address stress and trauma.
Resources from the Revolutionary Love Project
Our friend Valarie Kaur has collected a vast collection of resources with the Revolutionary Love Project that we share here.
For step by step support in daily call for ceasefire and tending our grief click here.
Click for reasons we are calling for ceasefire.
Join a local protest to demonstrate global solidarity between Palestinian and Israeli people.
Download ceasefire graphics to share on social media.
Coming together can support us as we feel the grief of the world. We encourage you to come together in prayer and grief. Research local events near you and bring people you love together to hold each other. Click here for a powerful example.
How to talk to children about conflict and war
How to talk to children about violence, terrorism, and war
How to talk to children about the violence in Israel and Gaza
The Massacre of Children in Gaza
For grief practices, stories, lesson plans, meditations, and music visit the Revolutionary Love learning hub here or click here to explore.
Unresolved grief in an individual is tragic; unresolved grief in a nation is catastrophic, more here.
The resources in this section were gathered by our friends at the Revolutionary Love Project and you can learn more here.
Listen and Learn
There is always more to learn as we weave together the stories and understanding.
Omid Safi: What does love have to say at a time of war?
Lyla June on Loving the Stranger
Seeding Light with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone and Mirabai Starr
Standing Together: Israeli and Palestinian Activists Ask Americans to Take Side of Peace
The Sermons I Need to Hear Right Now
Roots Run Deep Event with Gabor Mate
Books recommended by Gabor Mate:
The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities by Simha Flapan
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Gaza: AN Inquest Into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
Songs
May This Body Be A Bridge by Te Martin
Open My Heart by Alexis Sunshine Rose
Acknowledging Global Grief Care Package
During these times of global grief, we offer a handful of practices that support us to tend the broken heart. May these offerings resource you and help you to serve as an instrument of peace.
Songs
Instrument of Peace Visioning Meditation
Senses Meditation
Centering Meditation
Writing Practice Instructions
Wild Heart Writing Practice
with Mirabai Starr
After watching the Writing Practice Instructions video above, you are invited to read the passages below and set a timer to write with the prompt for 10 minutes.
Writing Practice 1:
“What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrong of the injured.” (Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad)
Prompt 1: What matters most? What does not matter?
Writing Practice 2:
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:1-6
Prompt 2: What comforts you when you are afraid?
