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- The Grief Wave: Sparks in the Dark
The Grief Wave: Sparks in the Dark
Finding meaning and connection when the fires don’t go out
Brian Stefan
September 02, 2025
🧭 TL;DR | This Week at a Glance
✨ Profiles & Ideas
🔬 Dasia Taylor: The Trailblazer Changing Medicine and Inspiring a Generation
🕯 Grief 101: Building Bridges — why community + professional grief care must come together
🔵 The Color of the Future — how blue carries us through change
📖 Currents: The Other Mourners — what animals reveal about grief
📰 News & Warnings
🏥 CDC Shake-Up & Warnings — a message from nine former directors
🧮 Terence Tao Speaks Out — the “Mozart of Math” on lost support for science
💥 Afghanistan Earthquake — death toll rises above 1,400
🎉 Events & Gatherings
🤝 Sep 4 — Mindful Self-Compassion (8-week program begins)
🎭 Sep 5 — Let’s Write a Musical! opens in Los Angeles
🕯️ Sep 6 — Palisades Community Renewal Center Grand Opening
🍂 Sep 21 — Caring for the Caregivers (FREE clinician wellness event + dinner)
🎉 Sep 27 — Jack Kornfield & Trudy Goodman’s 80th Celebration
🌊 California Grief Center
Therapy, groups, Catharsis Theater, and training for every stage of grief.
💌 Dear friends of The Grief Wave,
Facing the hurt — together.
As summer turns toward fall, we are reminded that every season carries its own griefs — the fading of light, the closing of chapters, the quiet traces of what was. Grief, too, moves in these rhythms: an ending that is also a beginning, a tide that leaves marks even as it pulls us forward.
This week’s stories reflect grief’s wide reach — in science under siege, in natural disasters that devastate lives, in the resilience of communities, and in the art and gatherings that help us hold one another. Grief is never only loss; it is also the thread that binds us to presence, to memory, and to the possibility of beginning again together.
✨ Profiles & Ideas
🔬 Dasia Taylor: The Trailblazer Changing Medicine and Inspiring a Generation
A journey at the crossroads of health, equity, and the future of science.
Dasia Taylor, inventor, scientist and CEO known for her invention of medical sutures that indicate infection with surgical wounds.
At just 17, Dasia Taylor stunned the medical world by inventing low-cost, color-changing sutures that detect infection — a breakthrough rooted in accessibility and equity. What began as a high school project quickly grew into a vision for saving lives in communities often left behind by medical innovation.
Now, as an inventor, scientist, and CEO of VariegateHealth — and a student at the University of Iowa — Taylor continues to shape the future of medicine at the crossroads of science and justice. Her work is not only about invention, but about reimagining who belongs in science and how innovation can serve equity, access, and belonging.
🕯 Grief 101: Building Bridges
Why we need both community and professional support
Two worlds of grief care, stronger together. (Illustration by Alexandra Angelich, University Communications)
Most Americans will face multiple profound losses by midlife, yet we remain unprepared for grief’s weight. Too often, support is split between private sorrow and clinical treatment, leaving mourners isolated.
This essay explores why community and professional grief care must come together — not to pathologize loss, but to honor love, memory, and resilience with continuity, ritual, and shared language.
🔵 The Color of the Future
Blue has always carried us through — sky after storms, light after darkness. A reflection on how color itself becomes a companion in times of change.
La Gare Saint-Lazare, arrivée d'un train, by Claude Monet (1877)
Blue has always carried us — sky after storms, light after darkness. Once rare and revolutionary, it now illuminates our screens and our imagination.
A meditation on how color itself becomes a companion in times of change.
📖 Currents: The Other Mourners
What animals reveal about the nature of grief
Exploring how animals respond to loss can reveal the evolutionary and neurological roots of mourning across species.
Elephants return to the bones of their dead. Dolphins carry lost calves. Istanbul’s street cats linger by grieving owners. Grief is not only human — it is a thread woven through life itself.
📰 News & Warnings
🏥 CDC Shake-Up & Warnings
A wave of resignations leaves the agency adrift, amplifying the grief of lost trust in the very institutions meant to keep us safe, as nine former CDC directors issue a dire warning
CDC Director Susan Monarez testifies at her confirmation hearing June 25. (Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images file)
The sudden firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the resignations of top scientists revealed a truth beyond politics: trust in public health is fragile, and once broken, the silence that follows is perilous.
Nine former CDC directors, spanning decades of administrations, warned that under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership at HHS, science itself is being undermined — contracts canceled, vaccines restricted, expertise discarded. Their message was clear: the nation’s health security is unraveling.
It is not only the chaos of resignations that lingers, but the grief of what their absence leaves behind — a void where protection, preparation, and confidence in our institutions should stand.
🧮 Terence Tao Speaks Out
The “Mozart of Math” breaks his silence, mourning the erosion of scientific support that sustains discovery, hope, and future generations.
Mathematician Terence Tao on the UCLA campus in 2015.Graeme Mitchell / Redux
UCLA’s Terence Tao — the “Mozart of Math” — breaks his silence as research funding collapses. Students consider leaving, institutes scramble, and America risks losing its place as a haven for discovery.
💥 Death toll climbs to over 1,400 after Afghanistan earthquake
A 6.0 quake struck just before midnight Sunday, followed by a 5.2 aftershock in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday during rescue efforts.
Afghan volunteers and Taliban security personnel assist the injured near a military helicopter after earthquakes in Mazar Dara village, Kunar Province, on Sept. 1, 2025. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
A 6.0 quake struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,400 and injuring thousands. A 5.2 aftershock hit during rescue efforts, compounding grief in a region already scarred by disaster.
🎉 Events & Gatherings
🤝 Mindful Self-Compassion 8-week Program (Hybrid: In-person & Virtual)
Starting Thursday, September 4 | 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM PT | Benedict Canyon, LA & Virtual
Lisa Kring, LCSW, is a senior InsightLA teacher for over 15 years, leading classes such as MBSR, Mindful Self- Compassion, Awakening Joy, and Basics of Mindfulness.
Taught by Lisa Kring, this evidence-based course blends Buddhist wisdom and clinical research to help you meet suffering with kindness. Includes guided meditations, discussions, and practical tools for emotional resilience. CE credits available.
Fee: $600 | With CEs: $685.
🎭 Let’s Write a Musical!
Opening Friday, September 5, 2025 | 8:00 PM | Los Angeles
A joyous celebration of love, resilience, and the timeless magic of musicals.
This heartfelt and inspiring production follows David Hamilton and his wife as they embark on writing a romantic comedy in the wake of David’s cancer diagnosis. As their real-life struggles unfold, so does the parallel story of Olive and Blake, a young couple in the 1950s navigating love, laughter, and life’s unexpected turns.
✨ Special Dates
September 7: Special Guest — Lisa Pahl, The Death Deck
September 12: Fundraiser for the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation
September 13: TeenTix Night
September 14: Stand Up To Cancer Night
🕯️ Palisades Community Renewal Center - GRAND OPENING!
Saturday, September 6 | 1:00–5:00 PM | Santa Monica
Free therapy and creative arts programs for all those impacted by the January 2025 wildfires, offered through the Picerne Family Foundation.
Join from 1–5 PM at 3212 Nebraska Ave, Santa Monica for the grand opening of the Palisades Community Renewal Center (PCRC) — a new space for healing, renewal, and connection after the January 2025 wildfires.
Enjoy interactive art with P.S. ARTS, learn about free counseling and wellness programs through Maple Counseling, sign up for upcoming workshops, and share food, music, and community.
All ages welcome. Free to attend and free parking.
🍂 Caring for the Caregivers: A New Season Beyond Burnout and Despair (FREE + Dinner)
Sunday, September 21, 2025 | 4:00–7:00 PM | Los Angeles (TBD)
Like autumn leaves, we gather together—each carrying our own weight, each offering color to the forest. This season reminds us: resilience grows in community.
The Provider Wellness Survey Project is a working group dedicated to strengthening the resilience and wellbeing of those who care for others. Mental health professionals are often exposed to high levels of stress, emotional exhaustion, and secondary trauma—this space is designed to help us come together, connect, and find support without judgment.
This is our first community meeting, and we are excited to invite you to join the conversation and share in a supportive circle.
Who Can Attend:
This gathering is open to clinicians of all levels and disciplines, including:
Student Interns (MSW, MFT, PCC, etc.)
Associate Therapists (ACSW, APCC, AMFT)
Licensed Therapists (LCSW, LPCC, LMFT)
Psychological Assistants
Psychology Interns/Externs
Psychologists (PhD/PsyD)
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Psychiatrists
Counselors of all backgrounds
And other professionals working in mental health care
What to Expect:
Not a lecture, but a conversation.
Not isolation, but community.
Not just surviving, but building new seasons of strength.
Together, we’ll reflect, connect, and renew as we move from summer into fall.
Free and dinner will be served!
🎉 A Joyful Celebration: Honoring the 80th Birthdays of Jack Kornfield & Trudy Goodman
Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 2:00–5:00 PM PT
Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman—beloved teachers, partners, and pioneers in mindfulness—sharing a joyful moment ahead of their 80th birthday celebration.
Guided presence, shared stories, and gratitude for two beloved mindfulness teachers. Proceeds support InsightLA’s mission of access, equity, and care.
📅 Saturday, September 27 | 2:00–5:00 PM PT | Santa Monica + Live Online
🌊 Get Help from the California Grief Center
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder & Clinical Director
California Grief Center
You do not have to grieve alone. Whether you have lost someone, lost your way, or carry unspoken sorrow, there is a place for you here.
What We Offer:
Grief Therapy (in-person and virtual)
Catharsis Theater (monthly gatherings)
Virtual Support Groups (confidential and facilitated)
Grief Counselor Training (Fall 2025)
Our Philosophy: We do not treat grief as a problem. We treat it as a passage.
Consultations are always free.
💛 With care,
Brian Stefan, LCSW
Founder & Clinical Director
California Grief Center
✅ P.S. Know someone quietly grieving?
👉 Forward this letter. You never know who needs it.
💌 To get these in your inbox, sign up for The Grief Wave Newsletter.
Facing the hurt — together.