Minneapolis is currently the epicenter of both reckoning and resistance. Collectively, we hold our breath in this shared suspension between fear and hope. Times of uncertainty, loss, and change often lay bare our hearts’ deepest longings. We may long for clarity, for safety and justice, for what once was, what cannot be, or what is possible but not yet realized.
Grief is the space that resides between our longing and our reality–the absence of the fulfillment of our desire.
Writing is an active practice that can assist in unsurfacing our most tender longings. It offers a different perspective that we may not at first have noticed and one that can non-judgmentally receive whatever needs to come out.
Join us for this one-hour virtual writing session inspired by the methods of Natalie Goldberg and Mirabai Starr. Our practice will allow for pause and space to honor the longings unfolding in your own heart and to take part in a collective practice that counters the injustice we are witnessing daily. We will consider:
How to open to and tenderly hold our longings.
How to live inside what has been taken, and still imagine what might come after.
How to alchemize our grief and shapeshift the space that resides between longing and reality in this specific moment.
Unsurfacing our Longings, Befriending our Grief:
A Writing Practice
what to expect
session flow
Opening the space // grounding
Individual writing // guided by prompts
Sharing // what stands out?
Closing the space // reading
No experience needed. Come as you are.
A NOTE ON participant LOCATION
The session will be held virtually. The live session is currently only being offered to residents of Minnesota. This is to intentionally facilitate a space for those proximate to what is unfolding within our streets and in our bodies.
We recognize that our city is not unique in experiencing impact, nor unique in the human experience of both longing and grief.
We welcome those out-state to participate in solidarity!
Register and donate (see donation links in the “All the Details” section) and we will email you the session opening, writing prompts, and closing reading. This is a tangible way to support our practice and the work of Minnesota residents and organizations on the front lines.
Participate at the same time as the live session or at the time it works best for you, knowing that our collective practice across distance matters greatly.
facilitators
Drawing from two decades of experience holding space for others as a social worker, birth doula, mentor and facilitator, Erin is honored to hold space now for our collective grief and longings. Writing as a spiritual practice has become one of her most impactful practices and she’s always wanting to be writing more.
Erin lives with her partner, three Spanish-speaking kids and a spunky cat in Minneapolis. She loves hiking and adventuring in the natural world as well as being cozy at home reading and playing games. She longs for a more just and compassionate world, a return to connection with the land, and the birthing of something even more beautiful than we can imagine in this moment.
erin meyer
sonja ausen
Sonja is the founder of Wild Sea Consulting, LLC, under which she does her grief and death work. She approaches this work through a public health lens, naming our society’s grief and death illiteracy as a public health crisis. Weaving together both the soul and science of loss, Sonja focuses much of her work on the polycrisis and how both individually and collectively we can strengthen our capacity to name and integrate grief. Sonja has a Master of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and is a certified full spectrum birth doula and a trained death midwife.
Sonja has been deeply influenced in both her life and training by contemplative, somatic, abolitionist, and liberationist thought and practice.You can read more about Sonja here.
For nearly two years, Erin and Sonja have met monthly to write together. This practice, their love of their community, and their shared longing for a more just and loving world has informed this writing session.
Date and Time: Monday, February 16, 2026; 7:00 - 8:00 pm CST, virtual via Zoom
Minnesota Price + Registration: This session is free. We encourage you to make a donation to any of the organizations found at @mplsmutualaid or Stand with Minnesota who are supporting direct efforts. You will receive the Zoom link approximately 48 hours prior to the February 16 session.
Outstate Price + Participation: Participate in solidarity! Register and donate to any of the organizations found at @mplsmutualaid or Stand with Minnesota. Prior to the day of the session, you will receive our opening grounding, writing prompts, and the closing reading.
Materials: We suggest a journal, pen/pencil, a candle, your favorite beverage, and anything else that is supportive to your writing practice.
Accessibility: These sessions will be held on Zoom, times listed are Central Standard Time. Closed-captioning will be available. No experience needed!