I’ve working with a dear friend and colleague to put together a program for a community wellness team. There’s change to be dealt with and maybe more importantly grief. Leona pointed me to Francis Weller and I’ve been reading and adjusting my approach to change – here’s some thoughts I’m surfacing for myself.

When I think about change or crisis,
I think about the river of life —
ever-moving, ever-shifting —
where change, grief, and conflict
are part of the same current.

We often try to manage what’s beneath the surface —
to fix, analyze, or soothe it in isolation.
We turn to counseling, confession, retreat —
as if healing were a private act.
But that’s the mistake.

What’s beneath the surface
is what most needs to be met together —
in communion, not separation.

Francis Weller reminds us that grief is not here to take us hostage.
It’s here to bring us below the strategies of control and competence —
to the place where we can be undone,
remade, and reconnected.

Yes, we may fall apart —
but maybe that’s the point.
Maybe falling apart is what makes falling together possible.

Because the real steps
to moving through crisis, conflict, and change
are always the same:
Grieve. Commune. Reemerge.