EverGrief: A Beginning

The who, what & why behind EverGrief.

About This Space

I created Evergrief as a home for the kinds of losses that rarely have language — the quiet ones, the ongoing ones, the ones that don’t come with funerals or clear names.

I write from the body of chronic illness, in a world that expects recovery. Within that personal well of heartbreak, I’ve found a doorway into the collective underworld of losses we all carry, the ones we have never learned to name, and therefore, never learned to honour.

This space is for the many griefs that often go unseen. The ones we live with quietly, every day.
When we begin to name loss and find ways to actively grieve, we open ourselves to deeper connection with life. We start to unfreeze what was held: our creativity, our softness, our voice.

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The Many Forms of Grief

Here are some of the losses we hold, often without even knowing.

Relational

• Estrangement from family or chosen family

• Grief over relationships and friendships that ended without closure

• Generational grief — that which is carried through families but often goes unsaid

• Relational rupture and harm — loss of safety, innocence, or trust

• Emotional neglect or unmet needs in childhood

• Infidelity grief — from every part of the experience

• Losing a caregiver or becoming one

• Being single when you don’t want to be

• Becoming a parent and grieving your former self or life

• A loved one’s diagnosis or health struggle

• On forgetting and being forgotten

• The illness or death of a beloved pet

Creative

• The grief of not creating — blocked or lost expression

• Grieving time lost to survival

• Grief over a spiritual rupture or crisis of meaning

• Aging and the quiet griefs that come with it

• Grieving an unlived life — all the paths not taken

• The grief of being highly sensitive in a world that asks for numbness

• Grieving the “could have beens” — the loss of imagined futures

Body

• Grieving the body you once had — mobility, function, appearance

• Invisible illness grief — not being believed or understood

• The isolating experience of living with chronic illness

• Loss of energy, stamina, or autonomy

• Medical trauma and misdiagnosis

• Receiving a life-changing diagnosis

• Grief from hormonal changes or surgical interventions

• Grief of sexual health challenges and the shame that often accompanies them

• Menstrual grief — living against the body’s natural rhythms, pain, exhaustion, isolation, shame, infertility or hysterectomy

Identity

• Loss of a version of yourself — before illness, trauma, or mental health challenges

• Loss of capacity and energy through illness, burnout, or exhaustion

• Loss of a coherent mind after fracture

• Loss of dreams or future plans

• Grieving safety

• Gender transition-related grief — letting go of a former identity or family relationships

• Coming out grief — loss of safety, family, or belonging

• Grieving what could have been if you’d grown up in a safer home, body, or place

Societal

• Collective grief — the times we live in

• Reproductive grief

• Financial instability

• Political grief

• Loss of cultural belonging

• Environmental grief

• Grief related to oppression and systemic harm

You don’t have to relate to all of these.
But if you’ve felt cracked open, gently unraveling, or slowly becoming, you belong here.

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A Pause

Shall we take a moment to breathe?

It’s a lot to read through that list. It’s a lot to realise how much you’ve been carrying. You deserve all the kindness and tenderness that comes with knowing this is very real grief.

This work asks for gentleness. Some days will feel heavier than others.

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What You’ll Find Here

The Grief Almanac

A seasonal care package of reflections, stories, rituals, and rest. Inside you’ll find:

• Personal writing on the many aspects of grief

• Poetry that gives shape to the unspeakable

• Invitations into ritual and seasonal practice

• Rest practices for depletion and exhaustion

• Space for community connection

Also at EverGrief:

I share personal stories and reflections through the lens of chronic illness, liminality, and the quieter forms of grief that rarely get named.

This isn’t a space for quick fixes or neat resolutions.
It’s a space for sitting with.
For letting things take all the time they need.
For finding beauty, even in the pain.

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I’m here as a writer, grief tender, and facilitator trained in Grief Tending, Counselling Skills, Yoga Nidra, and Death Doula work. My approach is trauma-informed and ever-evolving.

I’m learning how to live inside what doesn’t heal.
How to stay with myself in the quiet.
How to let in glimmers of softness and meaning, even when everything feels fractured.

If this speaks to something in you, I’d love for you to join me here.
Subscribe for free to receive new posts, reflections, and gentle practices for living through what’s hard to name.

My heartfelt intention is that we co-create this space together in community and connection.

With care,
Madeleine

A heartfelt thank you to my teachers & guides: Uma Dinsmore- Tuli & Nirlipta Tuli, Francis Weller & Holly Truhlar, Alua Arthur, Tara Brach, Stephen Jenkinson, Chantel Chapman, Katie Kurtz, Gemma Brady, Mara June, Sarah Durham Wilson, Lauren Carroll, Libby Rose Waite, Sharon Blackie and Claire Baker.