WOWWBLOG #71: Deaths and Births in the Same Week: Holding Grief and Gratitude Together
What a week of transitions taught me about life, loss, and the quiet power of showing up
WHAT: A Week of Endings and Beginnings
This week held both grief and gratitude.
A trusted colleague moved on. There were difficult conversations. I felt the instinct to cling, the rising aversion to loss. But anicca—impermanence—prevailed. I returned to the breath, practiced RAIN, and chose to focus on what still remains: a clear purpose, a strong strategy, and a team that is still here.
While grief tempted me to withdraw, I owed it to those who remain to celebrate them. So we walked through Intramuros—450 years of history beneath our feet. We stood before the White Cross, said a silent prayer for the 600 souls buried beneath, and remembered that this nation rose from ruins. It was a reckoning, a remembering, and a reminder: we are still here.
Another transition: we closed an eight-month leadership program. There were gains. There were pains. Both are true.
And in a "People First" coaching call, I witnessed the heavy toll of burnout—physiological symptoms, overwhelming workloads, systems that add burden instead of easing it. It made me ask hard questions about the "industry" we have built around work—growth goals that rise endlessly while humans and planet suffer. I do not have answers. But I am holding the questions.
SO WHAT: The Both/And of Being Alive
Life is not either/or. It is both/and.
We grieve and we celebrate. We lose and we gain. We feel exhausted and grateful. We witness burnout and breakthrough—sometimes in the same day, the same hour, the same breath.
This is anicca. Arising. Passing away. And arising again.
What held me this week:
· Compassion Cultivation Training — Tuesday nights, 8–10 PM, with kindred IDG volunteers. Our facilitator, Mark McMordie, offered a balm for tired bodies and sore hearts. Loving-kindness practice, even after decades, feels fresh when approached with Beginner's Mind.
· Our sangha — the Circle of Mindfulness Meditation Practice. We sat together and asked: What does love look like as a daily, ordinary, unglamorous act?
· Coaching seven individuals — each living a unique life, each rating themselves a 7 on our wHEW 7 Pillars. So much to be grateful for.
· The quiet birth of coaching capacity in young leaders—foundational skills and heart, already there, simply needing space to grow.
NOW WHAT: Three Practices for Weeks Like This
1. Practice RAIN When Loss Strikes
Recognize. Allow. Investigate. Nurture. Do not push the pain away. Hold it tenderly.
2. Choose Celebration When Grief Tempts You to Withdraw
Gather. Walk. Share a meal. Grief shared is halved. Joy shared is doubled.
3. Return to Your Sangha
Show up. Even tired. Especially tired. We cannot hold everything alone.
I love the work that I do. Not because it is easy—but because it is real. And I am grateful—deeply, ordinary, unglamorously grateful—for all of it.
Deaths and births. Grief and gratitude. Life, just as it is.
-Susan Grace Rivera
Posted on: October 11, 2026
