I was thinking about how the average life span has increased significantly since the times of hunting and gathering; the times of farming; and since the Industrial Revolution. But is this really what is better and meant to be?

For instance, some people go through a very bad illness, health failure experience, or catastrophe, and are saved by medicine with time, but in a more primitive society, they almost certainly would have died. Some of these people go on to live for a long time after, but their life is suffering and terrible. Nature, in that sense, can reduce suffering.

What do you think?

Kind of shocking. Surely they could have found some kind of compromise.

Welcome to our October Grief Support Megathread. We’ve created this support space for things that feel too heavy to hold alone, are too hard to say out loud, or feel 'too small' to make a full post about.

Your grief doesn’t have to be new and it doesn’t have to be for a person, it might also be for a pet, life change, etc. You don’t have to explain it, you don’t have to make it make sense and you're not limited by how often you can post here. If it hurts, it matters and you’re welcome in this space.

Resources

Some grief support resources are located here in our wiki (which is still under construction, so bear with us!)

Journal prompts for grief

These prompts aren’t here to solve grief or make it smaller. They’re invitations to sit alongside it in whatever form it’s taking today. Write, draw, or let them just float in your mind...whatever feels possible.

• What did they bring into my life that remains with me?
• What made me feel safest or most at home with them?
• What can I still carry forward from our relationship?

There’s no 'good' way to answer. Simply showing up is enough.

Somatic support for grief

Grief often hides in the body - in the breath, in the spine, in the weight of the shoulders. These small practices can help:

• Press your hand lightly to the center of your chest. With each breath, imagine a small light expanding behind your palm. No pressure to feel better, just observing.
• Wrap a blanket or shawl around your shoulders and imagine it as an embrace from someone who has loved you deeply. Breathe into that warmth for awhile.
• Let your shoulders rise toward your ears, then exhale and let them drop completely. Feel gravity doing part of the work for you.

These aren’t meant to 'fix' grief, they’re just ways to remind your body it doesn’t have to hold everything at once.

This thread is for whoever needs it today. Write a single word, tell a story, post a song lyric, or just be quietly present. We see you.

♥︎ Sibbie