Gratitude in a Time of Grief
Through the month of June, I took a hiatus from posting on my website or sharing much on social media other than re-shares centering Black Lives and current movements for Social Justice. I spent time developing an Inner Revolution Course called Mayari working on our inner shadows, lights, revolutions, beauty, war, and moon as a way of advancing our inner world, which will reflect our outer realities. This Gratitude Blooming Pollinator Reflection has been in the works since end of April and I gratefully offer it to you!
April 2020 w/ Soultree
Dear Gratitude Blooming and Chosen Family,
I write this reflection with a full heart and as you can imagine, gratitude in full bloom this spring season for the co-creations and cultivations that have taken place during my time as a Pollinator with this beautiful, heart-felt, and intentional community.
CONNECTION - THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CIRCLES
When my dear friend of over a decade, Melorie Masacupan invited me to last year’s Celebration of our Liberation at Hestia Grove in July, I had no idea how much the theme of Celebrating and Liberating would permeate throughout the relationships and experiences I would build at this retreat and with the Gratitude Blooming and Hestia family moving forward.
GB & ME
I started working with the GB deck exactly a year before becoming a pollinator for the community when Melorie shared a deck with me after my first reiki clinic at Qi Kratom in Evanston, IL. I have used this deck for celebrations, reunions, rehearsals, intergenerational gatherings, meetings, readings, and daily rituals. After the retreat at Mount Shasta in July, I attended a few Saturday Gratitude Circles on Zoom, but stopped after moving from Chicago to Los Angeles in September. Something called me to return to the Gratitude circles at the end of February.
CO-CREATION IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Before Stay-At-Home orders and Quarantine took place, I was called to reconnect with our community. The synergy and symbiosis I felt with co-founders Belinda Liu and Melissa Shaffer motivated conversations around collaborating more deeply. In feeling energized to share the frequency of gratitude and reflections inspired by nature to support our community in grounding through the chaos, we began conversations of what pollination could look like.
SACRED (BEE) KEEPERS
Melissa on the left, Belinda on the right :)
Belinda’s gift of seeing, uplifting, and affirming potential in all and Melissa’s strength in opening up the opportunity to connect through presence, spaciousness, and filling in gaps for the benefit of the whole, supported me in being able to manifest two offerings that have been calling me in my life path. With their presence as soundboards and a team of trusted spirit family, dreams were actualized and brought to life. The support of Anca, GB’s designer, offered clarity and effectiveness for the marketing materials we co-created. Being motivated and for my work to be honored by this team, made such a difference that allowed this pollination to grow and ground me during a time of uncertainty for us all.
POLLINATING
Bringing the Tuning Inward and Grief and Gratitude Circles workshops to life brought together skills and practices that I possessed, but have never shared in the way that I did for this collaboration. My calling toward music and socioemotional healing in a global yet interpersonal context have been with me since I was a child, so sharing it in this way with the community was beyond rewarding.
When Belinda and Melissa approached me about pollinating, these were the expressions that called to be shared. The idea behind pollination was that it would be a symbiotic relationship between GB and community members to share their offerings in a safe space with community and to continue to deepen the relationships, connections, and experiences we share in relationship to Gratitude and Nature. This exchange and model of co-creation couldn’t have come at a better time and is at the forefront of innovative practices in alignment with both feminine and masculine divine in a time where the rebalancing of matriarchal ways are sorely needed.
THE SEED THAT WAS ALWAYS THERE
Coming from Philippine lineage where we sang our sorrows and joys through karaoke on an almost nightly basis and from Marshallese culture where music was central to spirituality and relationship, I never saw myself as a guide in this realm. The topic of grief and working through it was also very much influenced by my culture and upbringing in having to let go of many things as tides rise and worlds shift on a seasonal and cyclical rhythm.
FERTILE LANDS TO GROW
Sharing ideas and practices in a safe space and container with the Gratitude family on Saturday mornings prior to launching the workshops and working closely with B and Melissa, helped me in seeing myself as someone who could pollinate themselves with their life’s passion and purpose, while sharing that with the community. These exchanges offered so much nourishment for me and everyone who was able to participate. I didn’t realize how much of an impact these sessions would make to friends and strangers, who turned into new friends, alike. In archiving how much the GB deck has been present in my life this past year, I was blown away by all the sacred ways I have used this deck with my community and in community spaces - from joyous occasions to challenging ones and all that’s in between.
SPROUTING SOMETHING NEW
Nick took on the month of May and tended to all the blossoming flowers within and around the Gratitude Community and Kathren beautifully held space for June, and I am excited to see what is to come for the month of July for the Gratitude Community.
I am taking the time to recalibrate how I can sustain and share Tuning Inward and Grief and Gratitude Circle within our Gratitude Blooming Community, Hestia Grove Wellness weeks, and in my own expanded and deepened practice. At this time, I am holding space for the Mayari course, developing herbal medicine, tending to our garden, and offering reiki, tarot, and meditation through SHHAA.
Through this co-creation with Gratitude Blooming, they generously supported me in sustaining through this pandemic showing me the influence and effect of nature, inexhaustible abundance, and a co-creative world guided by divine feminine in relationship with divine masculine.
Co-creation continues
I am excited to announced that I just received Gratitude Blooming decks and will be offering Gratitude iCare Packages including:
1 - Gratitude Blooming deck
1 - Custom Prayer for you and/or yours
1 - Post card
1- 30/20/10-minute Meditation/Reiki Session
The Gratitude Blooming iCare Package is SHHAA’s way of offering a number of services and offerings for a reduced rate for a more accessible and holistic experience with these modalities of natural healing and connection.
You can find these packages and a basic deck, and Gratitude community introduction and blessing session with me in the recently soft opened Sari Not Sari Store.
A GROWING GARDEN…
While we still face uncertain times, the ways our communities can hold a light for us, even on the few steps before us that we can see, gives me such faith, hope, and trust in what’s to come. I send all my love to future pollinators and the transformations that are on the horizon for us. May they be blissed and blessed.