Dear Collective,

With LBK fully moved out, there is a melancholic emptiness to the space. There are ghosts of music, dancing, latte frothing, vitamix churning purple smoothie energy that seem to swirl around amidst a bare kitchen. So grateful for the vibrancy that they infused into the bones of the building.

At the risk of adding to already busy lives, I feel a pull toward creating a ritual to provide closure for the Good Medicine Collective as it was. I’ve been pondering the meaning of ritual in these past months.

There are the individual rituals that bring order to our days, like the art of my morning coffee creation. Or rituals that bring community together, to tie us to a shared meaning of what otherwise could feel like a capricious existence. It honors the truth of impermanence and allows us to have a sense of grounding in a constantly changing world. 

In creating the guidelines for patients or clients entering the Good Medicine building, I’ve had a few conversations with people about how this shared practice of wearing masks, washing hands, standing at a distance… has become a ritual. A ritual in honoring the ultimate power of nature, this virus. Of creating shared trust amongst each other, a sense of order and stability in the midst of the unknown. 

With ritual on my mind, it feels appropriate- no, imperative- to hold some sort of gathering to behold, remember, give gratitude and finality to the last year we’ve spent as a collective. Whether 2 people or 20 show up is just right. It will be an energetic completion to all that has lived, passed, shifted, reinvented in these walls over the last year. I would love to give all of us an opportunity to pause and reflect and grieve what’s been lost, for you personally, professionally and in Good Medicine, before moving on to what comes next. 

If you feel moved to join, we will circle up (in a physically respectful way honoring the COVID ritual) outside at Harbor View Park on Friday June 5th at 5pm. 

A West African elder and teacher Malidoma Some, said “A society that loses the practice of ritual begins to decay from the inside out.”

Much love always, 

Liz