EP 157: Wreckage, Ritual, and Witnessing through Threshold Experiences with Day Schildkret

Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson

In this episode, Kimberly and Day discuss rituals and reflections for life-altering experiences. Our culture does not hold much space for processing how threshold events change us such as birth, postpartum, death, and all forms of comings and goings in our lives. Day describes what led him to his work of “Morning Altars” and newest book “Hello, Goodbye” which was a series of life-changing moments that he calls “wreckage” and how he pieced together rituals to acknowledge those experiences and their influence. Together, they discuss how to create rituals for all kinds of life moments, especially those which impact us deeply.

Bio

Day Schildkret is an internationally known artist, teacher, and author. His two books “Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit Through Nature, Art, and Ritual” and “Hello. Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change” help readers connect with art, nature, and ritual. His work has been featured on NBC, CBS, as well as BuzzFeed, Vice, Well+Good, and more.

What He Shares:

–Personal roots behind “Morning Altars” work, when his mother forgot his name

–Creating beauty in wreckage

- Marking transitions

- He’s looking for a husband, if you know anyone!

–Ritual, acknowledgement, and witnessing life’s impactful events

What You’ll Hear:

–Morning Altars came from early fascination with decorating nature

–Morning Altars came after break-up with partner and father’s death

–Low-stakes creativity and ritual in nature

–”Being wrecked” and not turning away from the endings of things

–”Wreckage” deeply connected to grief and loss and turning towards it

–Continuing to live while walking in the world with wreckage

–Wonderment and not taking life for granted

–Making meaning with life, grief, art, relationships

–Experience with mother’s dementia

–Transforming grief and wreckage into something beautiful

–Lit candles thinking of friends and family who loved mother

–Creating ritual in pain

–Art is putting pieces back together to make something meaningful

–”Hello, Goodbye” newest book

–Rituals for endings and beginnings

–Ritual doesn’t lead to answers or solutions

–Handing over dream of having a child to friends through ritual

–Understanding comings and goings from nervous system perspective

–Unacknowledgement of threshold experiences in culture

–Unwillingness to slow down and reflect especially in difficult experiences

–Rituals help us reorient to what is new and changing

–Marking endings and witnessing to new beginnings

–Crucial aspect of being witnessed and held during threshold experiences

–Ritual allowing expression of feeling and witnessing from others

–Loss of ritual in culture, ancestry, and families

–”Hello, Goodbye” is a cookbook to awaken capacity to make ritual

Resources

Website: https://www.morningaltars.com/

IG: @morningaltars