Lying Down to Sorrow

A Conversation Between Francis Weller and Trebbe Johnson
April 14, 2020

In the fall of 2018, authors Trebbe Johnson and Francis Weller initiated a conversation that we anticipated would be rich, unexpected, and offer something vital to our readers. The conversation began, then was disrupted weeks later as climate change-driven fires ravaged Northern California. The devastation wrought by the wildfires brought with it new senses of loss and uncertainty, new depths of grief and spaciousness. It’s within this spaciousness, should we be able to hold it, that we can lie down and listen—to learn a new language for what’s now being asked of us.

These times are unprecedented; as Francis notes in his new ebook, “There is nothing ordinary about these days of viruses and deaths, masks and social distancing. Our language has adapted to the pandemic. We speak of peaks and ventilators, hot zones and flattening the curve, washing hands and wiping down surfaces….We have entered a time of descent that takes us down into a different geography….We are hunkered down. Down being the operative word. From the perspective of soul, down is holy ground.”

So down, into the holy, and into the depths we go. As Trebbe says, a wounded place is still itself—but itself after undergoing all these trials.” We now face a new wounding, a changing collective self, a different set of trials: an invitation to open, soften, and deepen into bittersweet sorrow.