By Eddie Westerman
Special to West Seattle Blog
Whether knocking on doors, writing postcards, donating money, participating in conversations, or simply being barraged by news and election ads, it would have been difficult not to experience some stress in the months leading up to Tuesday’s election.
That’s why folklorist and grief coach Tamara Kubacki led a Post-Election Grief/Relief Walk at Jack Block Park in. West Seattle this afternoon, open to people feeling either of those emotions, though the former seemed to prevail among participants. The rainy walk gave people the chance to be in nature while feeling and talking about grief or relief from the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election. The peaceful walk also opened the door to other issues people feel they are facing in their own lives and the collective stress in the nation and world.
“We’re not meant to grieve on our own,” Kubacki says. “Being with others makes it feel less lonely.”
Participants shared their experiences through stories, poetry and conversation along the walking path. Kubacki, who runs a company called Listening to Grief, says she hopes participants of today’s walk felt a sense of community. She reminds people that it is healthy to talk about their grief.
One participant, Smith Sinclair, says he took a day off after the election and that he is still in denial.
“My grief is spilling over. I’m not participating in any media,” Sinclair says. “I was so hopeful.” He says he’s worried for immigrants and others and that he was deeply disappointed because he felt Kamala Harris ran a flawless campaign. He felt hopeful in the campaign work he did in Washington State, but despondent about what happened in the nation.
As part of the walk, Kubacki asked participants to ground themselves with breathing exercises, notice the sounds and the nature in the park and take time to genuinely listen to one another’s thoughts.
“I feel like fleeing,” Susan Holmgren says. She came on the walk, she says, to connect with her mother, who was a political activist when she was alive. Holmgren says her mother marched in countless anti-war demonstrations and that she would be so distressed to feel her children might have fewer rights than she had. While she does have dual citizenship because her mother was a United Kingdom citizen, Holmgren feels there are too many obstacles – especially financial ones — preventing her from trying to live in a different country.
Another walker at today’s event said it was heartbreaking to watch his 30-something children’s faces fall as the election results tumbled in. He was sad he couldn’t just “kiss the problem away for them.”
Kubacki says today’s walk, inspired by two Olympia-based organizations — Window Seat Media and Wild Grief – is a way for those in the community to come together when things feel awry. “Stories can be an anchor in uncertain times,” she says. The walk gave people the chance to think about what stories they were holding on to that they wanted to release.
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