Metabolizing Grief to Nurture the Great Turning
As we noted in the March 2023 issue of Deep Times Journal, the theme that emerges for our call for submissions incorporates experiences and feelings of members of our editorial board in real time. This includes what we are reading, what is happening in our personal lives, events that are in the national news, and our embrace of the Work That Reconnects as a framework for navigating the current time with courage, grace and hope. We were inspired by a quote from Martin Prechtel that one of our members brought to us: “Metabolize your losses with grief and feed the resulting beauty to life.”
The theme for the September 2023 issue grew out of concern for the many tragedies and injustices we witness, current and past, that reverberate across centuries unless they are skillfully metabolized–in other words: processed, digested, broken down and converted into energy and wisdom. Our call is for articles, art, poetry and song that reflect ideas about “Metabolizing Grief to Nurture the Great Turning.” And we acknowledge that grief can show up in many forms, including anger, fear, denial, and despair.
To inspire you, here are two quotations on that theme, the first from a poem by Gail Onion and a second quotation from Martin Prechtel.
This is the legacy of Coyote Woman, the first Friend
of the Earth, for all that is here are kith and kin,
here to do what friends do; make sweet the bitter
make bearable the unbearable, and make more beauty
of what we cannot bear.
–Gail Onion, from “How Coyote Woman Shook Out the World”
To begin … we must metabolize as individuals the grief of recognition of our lost directions, digest it into a valuable spiritual compost that allows us to learn to stay put without outrunning our strange past, and get small, unarmed, brave, and beautiful. ~Martin Pretchel, 2012. The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic, North Atlantic.
What we are seeking are ideas, observations, insights, processes, and illustrations of the interweaving of experiences of loss, trauma, and grief with the effects of fully experiencing them, acknowledging and celebrating the courage, perseverance, and wisdom that grows with deepening awareness of the transformative beauty of our feelings, other beings, and our world. We are especially interested in indigenous voices on traditional ways of metabolizing grief.
Please send your submissions by no later than July 1, 2023. Please read and familiarize yourself with these submission guidelines before submitting.
All submissions must be sent to: [email protected]
What to include:
- Your name, last name and email address
- Your location in the world
- A short (no longer than 100 words) bio
- A quality headshot of you
After July 1st, we will send acceptance emails and connect you with one of our editorial volunteers. If your submission is not accepted for this next edition, we will let you know by no later than July 31st.