Ashes and Endings: Grief, Legacy, and What Remains

🧭 TL;DR | This Week at a Glance

🕯 Grief 101: The Fire That Took Them
Suicide loss scrambles time, silences language, and leaves love without a map

🕊 Echoes & Endings: Joanna Macy
The Buddhist scholar and activist behind The Great Turning has died

🌆 In Memoriam: Wallis Annenberg
LA’s civic visionary and philanthropic force, dead at 86

💧 Justice Milestone: Flint’s 11,000 Lead Pipes Replaced
A historic win for environmental justice and community dignity

📅 Upcoming Events & Support
Rooted Together, HOPE Group, InsightLA, & Camp Erin

🌊 CGC Therapy, Events & Training
Grief isn’t meant to be carried alone. We offer support to help you rediscover purpose after loss

💌 Dear friends of the California Grief Center,

Ashes and endings — and what we do with them.

This week, we hold many kinds of grief:
The silent wreckage of suicide loss.
The passing of visionaries like Joanna Macy and Wallis Annenberg.
The hard-won triumph of Flint’s clean water milestone.

These stories ask us to slow down. To listen.
To mourn what’s been lost — and recognize what endures.

In this issue of The Grief Wave, you’ll find:
• A meditation on suicide grief
• Tributes to two remarkable women
• A celebration of justice in Flint
• Upcoming spaces for healing, ritual, and release

Here, we don’t rush grief.
We make room for it.
Together, we sift through the ashes — and carry forward what matters.

🕯 Grief 101: The Fire That Took Them

How suicide loss reorders time and shatters language.

It asks us to carry both blame and love in the same arms.

Some losses crack the world open. Others burn it down.

Losing someone to suicide is not just a loss — it’s a detonation.
A collapse of sound and silence, logic and mystery.
A vanishing of what was and what might’ve been.

🕊 Echoes & Endings

In Memory of Joanna Macy (1929–2025)

Philosopher. Ecologist. Grief midwife.

Joanna Macy once said, “The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”
She gave language to the ache we feel when mourning the Earth — and the courage to keep showing up.

Through The Work That Reconnects, she helped countless people grieve and galvanize.
She reminded us that despair is not the opposite of action — it’s often where transformation begins.

We honor her not just as a scholar, but as a soul who felt deeply, lived wisely, and acted boldly.

May her memory help mend this aching world.

🌆 In Memoriam

Wallis Annenberg, 86

A civic force who helped transform Los Angeles

Wallis Annenberg was more than a philanthropist — she was a builder of possibility.

From journalism to justice, the arts to social equity, her fingerprints are on nearly every corner of Los Angeles civic life.
She gave billions. But more than that, she gave vision.

Her loss is civic — and personal.
May we carry her vision forward.

💧 From the Ashes, Water

Flint Completes Lead Pipe Replacement

Ten years after its water crisis became a symbol of government failure, Flint has completed the replacement of nearly 11,000 lead pipes — restoring safe water and community dignity.

This is more than infrastructure.
It’s what happens when people refuse to stop fighting for what they deserve.

As NRDC President Manish Bapna put it:

Flint’s story is a beacon. A reminder that justice is slow — but not impossible.

📅 Upcoming Events & Support

Gatherings for rest, reflection, and renewal

🌱 Rooted Together: Community Safety & Care

Virtual Gathering | Thursday, July 31 | 12:00–1:00 PM PT | Free

This session offers trauma-informed, culturally attuned safety tools for social workers, impacted individuals, and allies. Led by a facilitator with defense and intelligence experience, the gathering shares ways to protect against surveillance, impersonation, and institutional harm.

✨ Facilitated by Brian Stefan, LCSW, and NASW team

🌲 Stillness in the Canyon: A Day of Nature & Meditation with InsightLA

Retreat Day | Saturday, August 16 | 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM | Benedict Canyon, LA

A donation-based day retreat from InsightLA, nestled in the quiet green of Benedict Canyon.

If your nervous system feels frayed by headlines or heartbreak — this might be the exhale you’ve needed.

🧘 Group meditations at 9am, 11am, and 2pm (optional)
🌿 Silence indoors; gentle talking outdoors
🥾 Bring layers, lunch, and your weary spirit — there’s room for it here

🕯️ HOPE Group: Mindfulness and Deep Suffering

Virtual (Zoom) | Saturday, August 30 | 10:00–11:30 AM PT

Since 2020, HOPE has offered quiet refuge from chaos—a space for reflection and presence.

🧘‍♂️ This month’s theme: Mindfulness and Deep Suffering
With special guest Patrick Park, a senior Dharma teacher in the Zen tradition.

💛 Donation-based & open to all

🏕️ Camp Erin: A Healing Summer for Grieving Kids in LA

Support Camp | August 23 or 24 | Glendale, CA | Free

Grieving children need community too.

Camp Erin Los Angeles, hosted by OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center, is a free, one-day support camp for kids and teens ages 6–17.

📅 August 23 or 24 | Glendale, CA

✨ Activities include:

• Plate smashing

• Music therapy

• Rock climbing

• Camper sharing circles

• Therapy ponies

🧡 Know a family in need? Please share.
📧 [email protected]
🌐 ourhouse-grief.org/camp-erin

Because grief is too much for a child to carry alone. And they shouldn’t have to.

🌊 From the California Grief Center

Whether you’ve lost someone, lost your way, or carry unspoken sorrow—we’re here.

We offer:

• 🧠 Individual, couple, and family grief therapy

• 🎭 Catharsis Theater (in-person & online)

• 🌐 Virtual support groups

• 📚 Grief counselor training (Fall 2025)

We meet people in their grief—and walk with them toward meaning.

✨ Consultations are always free. When you're ready—we'll walk beside you.

💛 With care,
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder & Clinical Director
California Grief Center

✅ P.S.
Know someone quietly grieving?
👉 Forward this letter. Everyone belongs. You never know who needs it.
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