“Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle, everything I do is stitched with its colors.” -W.S. Merwin
A father records his dying son’s heartbeat with a stethoscope before the boy’s organs are donated and composes songs using the heartbeat as the bass. A woman smashes the colored bottles her daughter collected before she died by suicide and makes an owl out of the pieces. A man hangs his fiance’s wedding dress inside the Temple at Burning man with a note that says, “I’m sorry you couldn’t make it to our wedding.” Using depth psychology, folk tales, and unique examples Dr. Bateman discusses how the end of a material relationship can be seen as the beginning of an imaginal one. She describes the creation of imaginal integrities through Storymaking–authoring your loved one’s story and your own in relation to them; and, Symbolmaking–the process of forging a tangible means of connection between the living and the deceased. The class will illustrate creative outcomes to grieving that allow one to recognize presence in absence, reflect and release complex dynamics, and yet stay in relationship and keep loving.
October 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th, 2023
5:00 – 6:30 PM UTC-8
Get the book: Crossing the Owl’s Bridge: A Guide for Grieving People Who Still Love