2024 Reflections & Sunsetting my Substack

Hey, dear ones. I hope that you're finding moments of rest and ease in the midst of everything. I know it's not an easy time of year for many people. Please take care of yourself as best you can. I invite you to move towards softness where possible and connection where it's available or safe enough. I'm wishing you ease and rest as we begin to move inwards into winter (in the northern hemisphere).

As you can imagine, 2024 has been a really deep and transformative year for me. Lots of shape shifting and change. A whole journey with being more visible and all the anxiety that comes with that. I remember in February of this year being so resistant and afraid to begin sharing about Tending Grief on social media. Despite trusting that the book could offer support it felt really uncomfortable to be sharing anything amidst the genocide taking place in Gaza. The genocide that is still taking place with violence also being enacted in Lebanon and Syria. Thank you to all who have been contributing, organising, donating and giving energy towards trying to end the violence. Blessings to all who are dreaming and cultivating futures where all beings can live with safety, dignity and belonging.

Tending Grief has been in the world for almost 8 months now. It’s my first published book baby and I'm so touched by its reception and entry into the world. I’m doing my best to really absorb the feedback from many people about how it’s touching their lives. I'm grateful that it's offering support, planting seeds for new cultures of care and experimentation with grief tending. I'm excited to see how it's going to grow and live in the world. Thank you to everyone that has supported this process - thank you to all that have bought the book or audio book, to all that have left reviews or shared it with loved ones. It really means a lot.

Alongside adjusting to the book being in the world, and more visibility, I’ve been doing my best to share about the work on podcasts, talks and some launches. I’ve been holding grief spaces (at some points of the year, 2 - 3 a month) and trying to support myself financially. I’m not sure if this is clear, but my teaching role at Sandberg Institute ended in June 2023 as planned so I’ve been freelancing again since then. It’s been quite a juggle to be honest and at times more precarious than I would like. A lot of book promotion work is unpaid and we are not yet living in cultures in Europe where grief work is valued or paid well so it’s been quite humbling and I’ve been in deep reflection about the asymmetry between what I have been offering into the world and my ability to support myself. It’s clear that more balance and reciprocity is necessary for me moving forward.

This year has been experimental in many ways. Substack has been one of my experiments. I am clear that I love writing and I’m keen to continue this. It’s also been lovely to connect with people on a non meta owned platform (as I find myself increasingly resistant to IG). However, I’m aware that Substack (as I’ve constructed it) is too much output without enough support. I simply don’t have the energy to sustain this given the current conditions of my work ecosystem. As a result, I will be ending my Substack and archiving posts by the end of December 2024. I understand if this is disappointing. I want to thank the handful of folks who became paid subscribers - your support means a lot. You should have already received an email from me about next steps.

I will go back to a regular newsletter that will aim to come out once a month. It will likely be similar to the format in my pre substack era (for those who know) and go directly into the inbox of my subscribers rather than via the substack platform.If you do not wish to receive newsletters from me outside of substack, feel free to unsubscribe.

For folks that would like to support my work to continue in a sustainable way and have access to more intimate containers with me, including a somatic practice space, I will be starting a Patreon in the new year. I anticipate this will be live in Feb 2025. I will send an update about this in my next newsletter. Until then, I will be taking a break from public comms on social media. I need time to rest, reflect, integrate and write my grandmother letters. There are many conversations we didn’t get to have while she was alive and I feel the need to write to her so these words and feelings have somewhere to live outside of my body.

With the political changes afoot, I invite you to reflect on how you can engage with the internet in ways that keep you safe enough and that are strategic. I am also in this reflection. I think we have to be really discerning in the times ahead.

So if you would like to continue learning with me and connecting with me online next year, consider becoming a patreon subscriber. It’s important to understand that people like myself who are independent, who do not have income from an institution or an employer are reliant on your support in order to continue doing what we do. So if my work matters to you, or has impacted you in some way, I invite you to consider supporting me in on patreon in the new year.

Thanks to everyone who has applied for the grief & somatics offering. There are a few more spaces available so feel free to apply by December 30th if you would like to.

Next year, I’m going to be offering consultancy packages for organisations seeking to have a embodied framework to support stress management and trauma informed approaches to enact systems change. If your organisation could benefit from this, I will have more information about this on my website from February 2025.

If you are an astrology nerd like me, I highly recommend listening to the 2025 year ahead reading by Chani Nicolas and two of her collaborators. It gives some flavour of what we may be about to navigate in the collective. I hope that we can all find ways to anchor in the times ahead. It may well continue to be pretty weird for a while…

Sending lots of love your way. Wishing you rest and ease. We will find a way through.

Cami