Tending the Threshold Newsletter
Weekly Rituals and Mountain Gatherings for Uncertain Times
Hello Dear Ones,
I'm writing to you as we deepen into a season that invites us to gather close and tend to what matters most. These days, I find myself drawn to the spaces between—between grief and possibility, between what's unraveling and what's being woven anew. Perhaps you feel it too, this calling to show up differently for these times of profound change.
It's from this threshold space that I'm stirred to share several offerings on the horizon. First, Emily Rhae Swanson and I are creating an ongoing weekly container called UNRAVEL | ENTANGLE: Not-So-Curated Conversations About Collapse. Through conversation, imagination, and embodied practice, we gather around questions like: What if we welcomed both the unpredictable and unimaginable? What is the underculture we want to root in during this time of polycrisis?
For those living near Lyons, Colorado and feeling the particular weight of these times, I invite you to join me in-person at the Lyons Library this Thursday, February 20th, for Love During the Long Dark. Through poetry, sculpting, and song, we'll explore how grief and love shape each other, and what medicine they offer for these times of profound loss and change.
Looking further ahead, I'm deeply honored to be co-facilitating a three-month Grief Ritual Training for the Climate Aware alongside Francis Weller and Steffi Bednarek of the Centre for Climate Psychology. Beginning in March, we'll gather together to cultivate a web of skilled grief tenders—something our world desperately needs right now.
Our beloved Soulful Life Convivium will be opening its doors to new members in April. Over the past four years, this virtual village has become a true house of belonging, weaving together souls from across the globe in weekly practice, ritual, and deep conversation. Our upcoming series is Devotions to the Long Dark: Soul Practices for Uncertain Times and will include several guest facilitators including Kai Cheng Thom, Desiree Adaway, and Francis Weller.
And, with a full heart, I'm called to share something that feels like a culmination of many of these threads: TENDERS: A Hide Tanning, Grief Tending Retreat. This July, in the embrace of Colorado's mountains, fifteen grief tenders will gather for a profound journey of remembering and fortification. We'll work with both hide and heart, tanning hides while tending to the griefs that shape us. This isn't just a retreat—it's a five-day immersion enveloped by a six-month communal container where we'll explore what it truly means to hold and be held.
In all of these offerings, we're exploring what it means to stay present to both the unraveling and the entangling, to let ourselves be shaped by loss while remaining open to big love. I hope you'll join me in one or more of these spaces where we can practice belonging to these times, to each other, and to the greater web of life.
With Ferocious Affection, Holly
PS: I’m also co-facilitating a couple 3 day in-person rituals with Jessi Rado and BJ Dwyer this year. Our June ritual in Colorado is now open for registration: https://www.eventcreate.com/e/gatheringatthewell.
Stay Connected
If you're feeling called to work or collaborate together—whether that's one-on-one mentoring, group work, or a collaborative project—I'd love to hear from you.
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Upcoming Offerings & Gatherings
Unravel | Entangle: Not-So-Curated Conversations about Collapse
Every Tuesday, 6:30-7:45 PM MT on Zoom
with Emily Rhae Swanson
Through conversation, imagination, and embodied practice, we'll explore what opens up when we shift from problem-solving to mutual learning in the face of polycrisis. These intimate conversations celebrate neuroqueerness, ecological entanglement, and soul, while holding space for the confusion, grief, and tenderness of these times.
For now, registration happens through Eventbrite with a different link each week. In March, we’ll start housing these offerings in a dedicated network, sending our initial invitation to those who’ve attended one of our February sessions.
Love during the Long Dark: A 2-hour Gathering Around Grief & Love
Thursday, February 20, 2025, 6:00-8:00 PM MST at the Lyons Library
with Elizabeth Marglin
This is our second annual love & grief gathering for the Bread & Poetry series, we’ll be exploring the Long Dark—this time of profound collective unraveling that calls us to become more intimate with both loss and love. Together we’ll explore the nature of the Long Dark and what it asks of us, engage in poetry and writing practices, discover how grief and love shape one another, and join in a communal micro-ritual with sculpting and song.
Come be part of this soulful space where we’ll hold both the heartbreak and beauty of these times.
Grief Ritual Training for the Climate Aware with Francis Weller
March 22 – June 14, 2025 through Mighty Networks and Zoom
Hosted by the Centre for Climate Psychology
This 3-month training is designed to support individuals who are aware of the impacts of climate change and the polycrisis, providing them with the tools to tend to grief in a communal and ritual-based space. This hybrid program combines five pre-recorded sessions with Francis Weller, live Question & Reflection sessions with Francis, and additional integration sessions with facilitators Steffi Bednarek and Holly Truhlar.
Devotions to the Long Dark in the Soulful Life Convivium
Applications Now Open for our April - June 2025 series
Weekly Meetings on Zoom: Wednesdays, 1:30-3:00 PM MT
Guest Guides: Kai Cheng Thom, Desiree Adaway, and Francis Weller
Our ongoing community of practice offers weekly Zoom calls, embodiment and creative practices, teaching sessions, a seasonal ritual. Participants receive weekly practice prompts, selected writings, and poetry through our Mighty Network platform. The upcoming theme is Devotions to the Long Dark: Soul Practices for Uncertain Times and each month we’ll be exploring:
April ~ Welcoming the Long Dark: Inhabiting the Beautiful Unknown with Francis Weller and Kai Cheng Thom
May ~ Singing, Praying, Dancing in the Dark: Practices and Ritual for the Long Dark with a special guest to be confirmed soon
June ~ Lighting the Lantern Within: Activating Your Medicine for the Long Dark with Desiree Adaway
In-Person 3-Day Grief and Long Dark Rituals
In Colorado and Washington
with Jessi Rado and BJ "Yam" Dwyer
We’ll gather to create a "sudden village" and warm our grief through writing, rhythm, song, and embodiment practices. Our first 3-day grief ritual in 2025 will be in Evergreen, Colorado June 27th - 29th. For more information and registration click the button below.
TENDERS: Hide Tanning & Grief Tending Retreat + 6-Month Container
July 15-19th, 2025 at a Private Ranch in Evergreen, Colorado
with Marissa Sieck
Held by the beauty of Colorado's mountains, fifteen grief tenders will gather for five transformative days of deep remembering and fortification. This intimate retreat and ritual is for those called to work with grief in their communities. We'll immerse ourselves in the ancient craft of hide tanning, working the hides while also working with our personal and collective griefs, exploring what it means to both be held and to hold others.
Through ritual and shared inquiry, we'll discover what needs to be witnessed and what needs to soften for us to show up fully for The Long Dark. Together, we'll craft vessels from the hides we tan, each one infused with our unique medicine. These leather pouches become more than craft—they are holders of our gifts as grief tenders, fortified through ritual to carry back to our communities. This is a convergence of the wild and the sacred, where ancestral wisdom meets present calling.
Beautiful