The Good Mourning Journal
Dear friend,
I am thrilled to announce today a new journal called The Good Mourning Journal. Truly the first of its kind, this grief journal helps a loved one process their mourning well. Through 52 guided invitations—one for each week of the year—the journaler is compassionately and gently invited to process more of the grief arising from loss. I hope you find this a helpful companion, no matter where you or a loved one may be in the stages of grief—or how recent or far away your loss seems. Mourning can be good (as in healthy), and this journal helps to encourage that good aspect.
Over the last several months, I have been heads down researching, designing, and creating this journal, which explores grief, loss, and healing through arts-based research. It’s inspired by my own journey with pregnancy loss as well as my doctoral research in embodiment, loss, and motherhood. This journal is approachable and invitational to anyone that has experienced any kind of loss. Loss, at its most basic level, is a change.
I am grateful to have partnered with Reimagine End of Life to help present this gift and spread the word. Thank you Brad, Ellen, Margaret, and Zubin for being a dream team to work with.
We’ve been surrounded by so much change—so much loss—this year. My own process of grief inspired this journal, and as I was working on it, I also stood witness to the intense grief that began to arise all around us due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, during this holiday season, these holy days of the end of year that naturally beckon reflection and space, I am truly am overjoyed to bring this to you. To birth this gift of peace, transformation, and healing from my heart to yours. Loss is so hard. So hard.
Much love to you and your family,
Jessie
P.S. Down below are some kind words about The Good Mourning Journal, the case for arts-based research, and a link to purchasing this journal if you or a friend would like to do that. xo
“This journal couldn’t come at a timelier moment. So many of us are struggling with grief and loss without the necessary support and comfort of close family and friends. This journal is that close friend. Jessie’s gentle voice, filled with compassion, is a guide and source of comfort throughout each week of the year. The journal’s invitations set you on a course of true healing - healing that can only come from taking the time to process the pain, paying attention, and opening yourself to transformation.”
“The Good Mourning Journal has been an inspiring and supportive part of my grieving process. Jessie’s tone is warm and encouraging and I found the practical approach of rooting my grief in my body and my physical experience was transformative. Having a weekly practice to turn to makes the journey feel manageable - like a supportive friend there to guide you and get you through each day. I think the journal is a road-map to peace and acceptance.”
THE CASE FOR ARTS-BASED RESEARCH
This journal arises in part from arts-based research that “assumes the arts can create and convey meaning” and in particular, acknowledges that our lived experiences and our bodies are places that hold wisdom, feelings, and knowledge. My own journey with loss and with embodiment also inspires this guided diary. Dr. Carl Jung once explained, “emotions are not detachable, like ideas or thoughts, because they are identical with certain physical conditions and thus deeply rooted in the heavy, heavy matter of the body.” And Dr. Celeste Snowber, leading researcher and pioneer of embodied inquiry, has more recently expressed that “embodiment is not just about the body but about living from an integrative place of body, heart, and mind.” So, embodiment and integration are in relationship with each other—and I appreciate how this dovetails into a theological understanding of the “heart” as well. As Dr. James Houston, a prominent theologian, writes, “for it is the heart that unites mind, will, and emotion in an integrated way of living, allowing us to think, desire, and feel as a whole person. Without this unity we will try and seek knowledge without emotion, or emphasize emotions without reflective thought. Both attitudes give a false picture of reality.” In our stages of grief, we may seek knowledge or emotion in isolation, but both are misleading. Arts-based research, alongside other fields like theology, cultivates a knowing that values a relationship of both—knowledge with emotion and mind with body—to encourage a new wholeness of person. Arts-based practices become a tangible way into the knowing and the grieving in profound, mysterious, and dare I say, holy ways of learning, healing, and being. The Good Mourning Journal makes a humble attempt at embodying these truths.
xx