Gaia Comes to the City

N is an acquaintance. I have known her for a few months and for the time I have known her, I have heard of the tough life she's been through since she was a teenager. From bearing the mantle of mother to her younger siblings to supporting a partner who was disabled in a car accident, N has seen times that some of us have only come across in books or films. She has often said, "Stress is my middle name", and laughed as a consequence. I have laughed to give her company, though I can say that in my deepest heart, I have not laughed at all. Her stress has been slowly killing her. The stress of playing roles she might not be ready for. The stress of being there for everyone else, when her own body is falling apart. The stress of not being able to say "no". It has seeped into her joints and her sacred hours of sleep. She has more nightmares now than she can count. As someone who believes the organism is one whole and that body-mind-soul-spirit differe

A year and a half ago I lost my grandmother to old age and a snapped spine. Her death was not a surprise, but you know what I mean when I say, one is never quite ready. I was in class focusing on a drama therapy lesson-in-action when I was shown a message by the administrator. It had come from my mother or my partner, I don't even remember who. There it was and there I was - giddy with a grief that choked me right up to my eyes. One moment I was excusing myself, addressing my teacher and the next, my knees were giving way in a room looming like a bottomless galaxy. Cut to now, when I can write about that day like it was just a mere scene, looping. Cut to the present, months later, when I have the ease of looking back at how I have healed. But that's the thing about grief. Stay with it, acknowledge it, allow it to air and it finds a way to tuck itself in. What also must be said is that grief isn't such a state of maturity when it is actually happening. Last night,