top of page

Wilderings: Overcome by Wilderness

April 5th - 11th, 2020

April 5th: Find a bit of nature that can hold part or all of your weight. Rest your weight on it like you just came home from a trip and you’re setting down your bags. When your mind wanders, collect your bags and set them down again.

Describe your weight and the weight of the thing on which you rested.

April 6th: Return to whatever you rested your weight on yesterday. Sit so you can see all of it at once. Look at all of it. When you mind wanders ask - what else? - and keep looking.

Write what you noticed in sentences starting with the phrase “and also you” alternating with “and also I”.

April 7th: Return again. Choose one detail on which to focus. Look at that one detail. When you mind wanders ask - what more? - and return to the detail.

Describe that detail. Start every sentence after the first with the word - more.

April 8th: Return once more. Notice everything around your bit of nature. Don’t look at your bit of nature at all. When you’re tempted say - not yet - and return to everything around it.

Describe everything else. Begin each sentence with the phrase - beside you.

April 9th: Imagine you’ve separated from your bit of nature. Write and/or draw a correspondence. Take as many of your images and as much of your text from your previous days’ exercises as you can.

4.9_edited.jpg
4.9_edited.jpg
4.9_edited.jpg

Alyna O'Hanlon

Dear —-

And also you

are a teacup from the fancy shelves in Rosey’s kitchen. I

don’t understand

how it’s ever full.

At night.

How is it full?

Beside you there are petals. Beside you there are brown

birds with black heads. One brown bird who moves the dirt

with her toenails then eats

from the new-raked soil.

I don’t understand the moon.

—- Yours

 

 

Dear —-

My weight felt like something someone put on a table that

doesn’t belong

on the table. A small thing. And also,

I am not sure how to move

when the wind blows

you are so spread out, how do you not come

undone?

 

Even though I looked away,

I still heard the birds.

 

 —- Yours

 

Dear —-

And also you are soft, like an old woman. And also

I am soft.

Should I prune you?

I don’t know

if that’s what caring looks like.

I am not someone you ask over.

 

And

also

I am here, even at night.

And also

 

 —- Yours

 

 

Dear —-

Beside you

there are pigeons.

Beside you there are pigeons.

Beside you there are pigeons who drink from water

I’ve set out.

Beside you there are petals that

fell, and

when they fell they hit the ground as if

they were full

 

like fruit.

 

Your petals,

I guess.

The table doesn’t mind –

it could get used to it.

 

—- Yours

Dear —-

This could be the moon

I’ve set out

Beside you.

 —- Yours

 

 

Dear —-

 

Beside you there is sunlight.

 

 And also

 

more.

 

—- Yours

 

 

Laura Green

The Grief House Logo House.jpg
  • Portals Podcast
  • Our Instagram
  • Our Facebook Page
  • Our YouTube Channel

All grief is welcome here.

All are welcome here.

This is an LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-affirming place.

The Grief House is not a replacement for skilled mental health care. We cannot provide acute crisis intervention. If you’re struggling to find the help you need, we are happy to offer referrals and suggest resources. If you feel like you might hurt yourself or someone else, help is available 24 hours a day from the National Suicide Hotline (1-800-273-8255) or by dialing or texting 988. If you are having a medical emergency, please dial 911.

Finding Us

The Atlanta Grief House Nickerson Cottage at Legacy Park Decatur 500 S. Columbia Dr, Decatur, GA 30030 Notes on finding us: GPS will take you to the center of Legacy Park. The Nickerson Cottage is a stone building with raised bed gardens on the south side of Legacy Park's campus. If you enter campus through the south entrance it will be the first cottage you come to. You can park in any of the surrounding lots. If coming in the evening you will see the string lights on our front porch. Nickerson Cottage is largely wheelchair accessible.

The Portland Grief House 7906 N Fessenden St, Portland, OR 97203 Notes on finding us: We are the green house on the corner of N Fessenden & N Allegheny Ave. Enter through the gate at the corner.

Wilderings, operating as The Grief House, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN  84-4336786) and all donations are tax deductible. 

The Grief House works on and serves communities on land that is the unceeded territory of the Muskogee, Cherokee and Creek peoples in Georgia and the Clackamas, Stl’pulmsh, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla and Siletz peoples in Oregon.

 

We honor them as we live, work and serve grievers on these unceeded lands. 

Copyright © 2025 The Grief House | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Terms of Use

bottom of page