Mourning Walk

This morning I returned to something I used to offer others, a mourning walk.

Years ago, I would gather people who were carrying grief and invite them to walk together in nature. Along the path we would collect what the forest had already released, rocks, feathers, fallen leaves, small sticks, dried flowers, never taking what was alive, only what had been gently given. When the moment felt right, we would pause and create something together. A small mandala, a heart, a simple offering placed on the earth. It was never about the shape itself, but about honoring what we were carrying.

Today, I walked alone.

I brought my own grief with me, for family members, friends, patients I have cared for, and for those I know who are quietly navigating their own sorrow right now. On the forest path, I gathered a few small things and made a heart on the ground. Then I stepped away and sat on a fallen tree and simply watched the forest breathe.

People passed by.

Some noticed the heart and smiled. Some stopped to take a photo. One hiker accidentally stepped on it, and another gently called him back to repair what had been disturbed. Then, almost instinctively, they all began adding to it, a stick here, a leaf there, until the small heart I had made was no longer only mine.

Later, a couple stopped beside it. They admired it, sat down next to it, and took a photo together.

And in that quiet moment, I was reminded of something simple and true. We all walk through this world carrying different things. Grief, love, memory, longing, hope. When we leave something of ourselves behind, even something small, others may meet it in their own way. They may protect it, add to it, transform it, or simply pause beside it for a moment.

And somehow, without speaking to one another, we become part of the same human offering.

A small heart on a forest path became grief, care, repair, collaboration, and love, all within the span of a single mourning walk. And it reminded me how gently we hold one another, even when we don’t know we are doing it.

xo

Gabby