Grief is a Language™ Podcast Premiering Tonight (7/26 @ 7:26pmEST)

My invitation for us to create a moment together.

What’s up y’all,

So I was supposed to send this a few days ago. But…procrastination. So, thank you for your patience.

In some way, shape, or form, you’ve supported the work I’ve been trying to do these past few years, which is helping people become more fluent in grief. Maybe you caught a We Go On Tour stop, heard me preach, came across something online, or read a few words I’ve written. However you found your way to me and this work, I’m eternally grateful.

Tonight at 7:26pm EST, I’m premiering the first episode of a new podcast: Grief is a Language™, live on YouTube. You can keep up with updates about the podcast at GriefisaLanguage.com

Here’s why I wanted to do it this way instead of just putting it on a inner tube and sending it floating down social media’s lazy river.

There’s so much content constantly chasing us down around every corner. We all tend to listen or watch in passing and share clips. But we rarely get a chance to actually sit down and take something in together. Reacting to it in real time with real people. There’s something about being with people in real time that has a warming and comforting effect.

I’ll say it until I’m dead and gone. The real killer of grief isn’t the initial loss, it’s the eventual loneliness. It’s the chilling isolation that comes when you feel stranded in grief’s frigid countryside.

When we find ourselves here, we quickly realize we don’t needs answers. We need companionship. Accompaniment. The warmth of another human body. Honestly this is why we’ve never streamed any of our We Go On Tour stops online. There’s something about the embodied experience that just makes it work in a way that it can’t online.

When it comes to content this important, that require this level of warmth, it’s so difficult to do it through cold computer pixels. Feel me? Sometimes it feels like a fire place screen saver. All light, but no heat. What you quickly learn is that it doesn’t matter how high the resolution on your TV, computer or iPhone is….you can’t roast marshmallows on a fireplace screensaver.

Despite our best attempts, trying to defrost hearts that have been frostbitten by grief’s cold teeth is so hard to do online.

That’s why I’m trying to do this. I want us to be together. (Well, as together as we can be on a Sunday night all spread out)

So tonight, 7:26pm ET, we’re going to stream the first two episodes together:

Jordan & Jessica Rice: two close friends who each buried a spouse before they got their first gray hairs

KevOnStage: someone I’ve admired for a long time and we got a chance to connect in this convo through the shared experience, not just of losing an older brother, but the strange grief of growing older than him.

After tonight, the episodes will be up for you to engage with whenever it feels right for you. In the car, on your walk, while you’re vacuuming your car, or pretending to do work at your 9-5. But for these first ones, I wanted us to be in it together. Come stream it with us, and meet others in the comments who’re learning to speak this language none of us wanted to learn but all of us eventually have to.

7:26pm Eastern. YouTube. I’ll see you there.

Peace,

John O