Breathing Wind

“I think with any person's life, there's a lot of joy. There's a lot of beauty, there's a lot of love and hope, but there's also a lot of grief and tragedy and, and sorrow.”  ~ Christina Vo In this week’s episode, Sarah reflects on many of the conversations she had in Season 1, as well as a few from Seasons 2-3, contributed by guests who reflect on their grief over the death of their moms. As expe...

“Some people think solitude and loneliness are the same thing, but to me solitude is almost this soulful, nourishing kind of quality that I need, [that] we need, and especially when we're grieving.” — Naila Francis In this episode, we reflect on our earlier conversation with Sarah Chaves . We explore why silence and solitude are essential for both of us on our grief journeys and reflect on being t...

“Grief is ever present. It's not like this little cloud that hangs above my head. That's not it. It's the fact that it is a lens through which I view the world and all my relationships constantly. I cannot take off that lens.” ~ Sarah Chaves In this week’s episode, author Sarah Chaves brings us a rich and stirringly honest conversation about grieving as a mom, daughter and writer who began craftin...

“Leaning into love is leaning into grief,” — Sarah Davis  In this week’s episode, co-hosts Naila and Sarah muse on our conversation with poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and all she gifted us with her openness and generosity. Inspired by how she’s being guided by her word of the year — “hello” — we share our own words for 2023. We also talk about our willingness, and protectiveness, when it  comes t...

“I really trust life itself to rise up and help me meet the things that I cannot control. I trust love to show up and help me meet the things that I cannot control.” ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer In this week’s episode, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer cries and laughs her way through an expansive and nourishing conversation about grief, creativity and love. We talk with her about poetry as a practice for...

“[Grief is] really almost like a relationship. It's not, ‘Here's this chapter of my life, here's this season of my life. Here's this thing I have to focus on now or get through now;’ [Instead] it's this enduring relationship that you're always in. And, it changes over time, just like the real relationships in our life change over time and things come in and out and circumstances shape them in diff...

Welcome to the Breathing Wind Season 3 finale. In this season, we explored joy in context of grief. In other words, how does joy show up for us in the wild? How is joy an act of resilience? What if joy is unexpected? How do we embody joy? This episode is a collection of some of our favorite moments from the season. If any of these excerpts sound particularly resonate, be sure to check out the enti...

"While I never know what it's like to celebrate the holiday season with my aging mother, I've come to appreciate her presence in my life in a way that makes sense to those who savor Christmas, keeping their decorations up long into the new year. She's in my warm, salty tears that still flow at times. She's in the cold autumn fall. When I see the leaves begin to submit to the painting of the forest...

“There really is not a timeline. You do not know how long it may take. It's a journey and it's something you carry, not much different than love. I really think that, just like love doesn't have a timeline, why would grief?” — Kendra Rinaldi In this week’s episode, Kendra Rinaldi , grief coach and podcast host of Grief, Gratitude & the Grey in Between , talks with producer/host Sarah Davis about t...

"Grabbing those moments and claiming them for yourself so that you have a bit of goodness and nourishment to support you as you go on the sometimes really hard road of grieving…that’s really important.” —Oceana Sawyer In this week’s episode, Oceana Sawyer speaks with producer, Sarah Davis, about the themes that surfaced and shared some of our favorite moments from her miniseries. The Possibility o...

“There's just something about the air. If you live by the ocean, there's a saltiness in the air. You can smell the fruit every morning as you walk the streets, depending on if it's a market day or what's in season. So it really grounds you and places you in time, space, memory, where you are, who you're connected with, and what's happening.” — Roshni Kavate In this week’s episode, Roshni Kavate sp...

“My grief is the one at the wheel.” — Karine bell In this episode, Karine Bell speaks of several significant life transformations for her — birth of her daughter, death of her mother and father. In each, she emphasizes the conditions she had to feel safe in her grief and the layers she experienced. The Possibility of Pleasure  miniseries hosted by Oceana Sawyer, explores grief through the senses,...

“ We have to be very awake in a really deep, rooted way…And listening with not just our ears, but all of our senses really.” —Melanie DeMore, on singing for people at the end of their lives. This week’s episode features a conversation between Oceana Sawyer and Melanie DeMore, three-time Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director and vocal activist. Oceana and Melanie talk a...

“ Joy allows you to open up a little bit — expand just a little bit — and reach for something maybe that you couldn't see before.” —Oceana Sawyer In this week’s episode, Oceana Sawyer and Sarah Davis talk about Oceana’s background, her guests for this miniseries, as well as some of her thoughts on joy and grieving. This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled The Possibility of Pleas...

“When I just let myself surrender and fully feel the grief, there's a certain point where my body knows that it can't take anymore. I often feel a rebound — and sometimes that is in the form of humor or other lightness — but I've also found that, when I don't just let myself fully feel, it doesn't happen.” Dara Kosberg In this week’s episode, Dara and Sarah recap the miniseries and their views on...

“One of my teachers says that all emotions contain their opposite. So when I'm willing to be with the grief, I have access to joy again. Instead of this armoring that comes very natural to us, we do our best to remain to find the willingness to open in an undefended way.” — Vinny Ferraro In this episode, Dara and Sarah talk with Vinny Ferraro about the training program, A Year to Live, emotional o...

“We often feel like maybe it's a betrayal of our grief to feel joy or that there's no room in grief for joy, or that it means, if we're grieving the loss of somebody who died that we loved, maybe we're not loving or honoring their memory enough or whatever the stories are that we tell ourselves. But we need joy to hold the heavy and the sad.” Naila Francis In this episode, Naila talks with Sarah D...

“I understood really early about when you go through extreme grief, that there's loss in different kinds of ways. It’s not just the person that passed away…It’s all the threads that hold you close.”  Colleen Attara In this episode, Naila talks with Colleen Attara about her early experience of grief and how that’s informed her journey as an artist and educator; her willingness to embrace joy in the...

" So it's not [about] bypassing the grief, or bypassing any of it. It's about creating space for it, holding it, seeing it, recognizing it, having a conversation with it, you know, and really honoring it. And knowing that underneath that is this place for you to access your joy as well." Simone Baker This episode is part of the Breathing Wind miniseries titled Joy as Resilience , hosted by Naila F...

"I think you really have to have the sad to also appreciate the beauty." Moon Fang This episode is a part of the Breathing Wind miniseries titled Joy as Resilience , hosted by Naila Francis. The Joy as Resilience miniseries explores why embracing joy is not frivolous and how cultivating it can help us weather challenging times and open our lives to greater connection and purpose.  In this episode,...

" Personally for me, joy is my inherent nature. I really do feel it to be the essence of who I am and how I move through the world, which is interesting because so much of the work I do is around grief and loss and dying. And yet those experiences and journeys are so much more expansive than we might believe them to be, and are capable of holding joy, too, and many other positive emotions that we...

" So they experienced this death. And then they all have to band together – ‘we're still going to make everything happen.’ That's kind of how I felt after my dad passed away; I'm just going to do everything that I need to do." Angela Tabora This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Grief and Humor , co-hosted by Dara Kosberg and Sarah Davis. The Grief and Humor miniseries explores...

"…you have to find the humor. If it's not in their death, it's maybe something in their life.” Erin Lim “My dad used to say that laughter is the best medicine…. I feel like it balances you out as well because you can't have the grief without the joy.” Angela Tabora This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Grief and Humor, co-hosted by Dara Kosberg and Sarah Davis. The Grief and H...

“It feels like a wilderness exploration journey where, yeah, some parts of it we know and love. And some parts of it, we just don't know enough. And it's always a bit of a discovery. And the weather's always going to be different.” — Duncan Cheung This episode is part of a Breathing Wind miniseries titled Inner and Outer Wilderness, hosted by Duncan Cheung . The Inner and Outer Wilderness miniseri...

" No one can avoid negative stuff happening. Negative stuff happens all the time on a lot of different levels, whether I got gum on the bottom of my shoe, or my father died, right? And everything in between. We can't control that. And again, nature is the perfect metaphor for this – being out in the wilderness helps cultivate your ability to stay with your strong, resilient, loving wise self. And...