Each time I sit with someone whose heart has been shattered, or bear witness to someone as they take leave of this world, or gather my community to celebrate the life of a loved one, I have a sense of being lined up with my own inner architecture. There’s a geometric resonance. It feels like a homecoming.

We need to create circles of welcome in our lives in order to keep leaning into the world; to keep moving grief through our psyches and bodies, so we can taste the sweetness of life.

We register in our psyches, consciously or not, the fact of our shared sorrows. Learning to welcome, hold, and metabolize these sorrows is the work of a lifetime and the focus of this book.