Dancing with the Midwives seeks to empower the reader to heal grief through art. Delving into the very personal sadness surrounding a still birth, Ann Faison meets her grief with uncommon honesty and openness. The book’s spare writing and delicate drawings shed light on Ann’s grief in a way that shows us how we too can heal. Reading her words and watching how she grows and expands throughout the process allows for a new kind of healing through grief. Healing through Art and Grief.
Art and Grief
How can art heal grief? How does anyone heal grief? We all grieve differently and there is no right way to do it, just as there isn’t one way to make art. However, using the sadness or grief to make something necessarily moves us through the feelings. Grief and writing are especially symbiotic. When grief make us feel alienated or alone in the world, we can choose to connect to the sadness through writing which then connects us to the universality of our emotions. When we take it a step further and express it or share it, we allow ourselves to help others and profound healing can result.
Death, Loss, Still Birth, Miscarriage and Breathing
When someone we love (or were ready to love) dies, grief is inevitable. But people often don’t have patience for grief. They just want to move on and get back to living. Some people feel grief is a luxury they can’t afford. But in order to live we have to breathe and we can’t hold in sadness and breathe deeply at the same time. All it takes to make space for grief is slowing down. Walking and breathing slowly, being with the feelings and allowing them to pass through are the essential ingredients of grieving. Sometimes grief is so powerful it leaves us no choice but to deal with it. Dancing with the Midwives is a meditation on grief. It’s about slowing down, paying attention and making space for the process to unfold naturally.