06/03/2026
The photo on the cover of my book isn’t just any photo. It was taken by during a grief ceremony in Lions Bay, BC in 2022.
A group of us met on the beach and I guided us through several rituals to acknowledge what we were each holding ~ and then we held it together, as a community of care.
I invited each person to choose an object on the beach that symbolised their grief. A heavy stone. A gnarly piece of driftwood. A ball of sand. We each shared what it meant to us and how it connected us to our grief ~ and then we threw our objects into the sea, along with some flower petals I collected to honour what we were releasing. We followed the objects in, plunging into the frigid ocean as the sun set.
We howled and cried and laughed. We found stillness in the cold water. We felt what we needed to feel.
We emerged, warmed up, and shared what we noticed.
It was one hour of my life that will be forever imprinted in my mind ~ a group of strangers sharing what was weighing on them, holding space, feeling connected to themselves, to each other, and to this majestic world.
When and I were deciding what image should grace the cover of my book, we knew this was the one. It holds so many stories in a single flower petal ~ the drop of water representing individual grief, the ocean representing our capacity to hold that grief together. It’s all so incredibly beautiful 🌼
Thank you, Felicia for sharing this image with us. It makes me feel so many things at once ~ and that is exactly what the power of ritual offers ~ it connects us to something bigger than ourselves.
✨ Ritual Without Religion is available now to order ~ and this story and more are shared in the book.
Link in bio.
