Grief Classes, Workshops & Projects; Reiki Sessions & Classes; Teaching, Learning & Writing Support We both earned our Ph.D. degrees by the age of 29.
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Welcome to Inviting Abundance, a collection of wellness and educational services for people seeking to engage with the complexity of life. To help you understand the scope of these services, we offer this brief introduction about us:
Together, we have achieved a great deal. We have travelled and lived abroad. We have published books and essays on various topics. Our backgrounds in the performing
arts and literature have brought us into contact with international artists and thinkers, many of whom we count as our greatest friends and teachers. None of our achievements, however, prepared us for the death of our son in June, 2014. Finlay Emilio died of unknown causes at the end of 20+ hours of labor, and his departure from this world broke us into millions of jagged pieces. Finlay's death devastated us, clarified what mattered most to us, and opened us up in ways we could not have previously imagined. Our slow process of healing has allowed in new ways of thinking, feeling, learning, and growing. We recognized, as Rumi says, that light enters through the wound. We soon realized, however, that no pre-existing job matched our unique blend of abilities and life experiences. Instead of trying to fit ourselves into a place that didn't feel quite right for us, we decided to make a place crafted with creativity and care. Inviting Abundance is a space where we continue to grow and thrive as we work with others who want to cultivate a purposeful and creative life attuned to the complexity of the world and their own hearts. There is great abundance in grieving, in continuing your education, and in embracing significant life changes. To access this abundance, you need to invite it in. We want to help you craft your invitation.
- Joanne Zerdy & Will Daddario
08/01/2025
Starving Children - Call to Action! 🔊
From -
"Over one million children are about to die from a man-made starvation in Gaza, and aid is just miles from the border.
Join me in pausing all of your ads, promotions, and regularly scheduled content today, August 1st to make room for Gaza’s voices to be heard in this dire moment. Instead, post a picture of an empty bowl to show your solidarity.
You can help us send an urgent message to national news by using bit.ly/gazaisstarving to urge networks to report on the one million children that are on the brink of death from forced starvation.
We won’t feed the algorithm while Gaza starves."
If you can, please donate:
07/16/2025
With love and solidarity to our fellow grieving parents who are navigating this world without the physical presence of their beloved children. 💚💞💚
May we all act with more compassion towards ourselves and one another. May we all find meaningful connections to sustain us, especially in the hardest moments. May we notice and honor the grief that moves through. around, and between each of us on a daily basis. We understand this grief, as Will writes, as "the gravity of the social."
-with care & camaraderie,
Finlay's parents,
Joanne & Will
[ID: photo of person holding up lit lantern in a dark, star- and heart-filled sky. Text reads: "We light up the world with our love. Bereaved Parents Awareness Month."]
07/03/2025
Check out our Summer Newsletter!
Read about our upcoming Creative Grief and Build Your Class Workshops AND Joanne's October HSPL dates.
If you've been considering joining us for a Creative Grief Workshop or becoming a Grief Pen Pal or purchasing something from Finlay's Garden or signing up for Will's Race & Philosophy class or Joanne's Grief Mapping class, now's the time!
As a thank you for our 900th (!!) Inviting Abundance order, we'll send you a wee bottle of Rose Glycerite. Who couldn't use some heart-loving rose medicine these days?
[ID: On a stone wall sits a small amber jar with purple and white label that reads: Finlay's Garden Rose Glycerite. Behind, a small blue & white mug. Beside, a white and red paper tag. Above photo: "900th Order Thank You Gift." Below photo: "Be the next person to purchase one of our offerings & receive a 2 oz. bottle of Finlay's Garden Rose Glycerite!"]
Joanne welcomes educators, doulas, midwives, mental health counselors, social workers, bereaved family advocates, grief support facilitators, and others to join this online 5-hour training.
Trans-Inclusive Offering
Registration on a Sliding Scale Basis
Sessions Recorded for those who cannot attend live
06/20/2025
We're re-sharing this quote with a since wish for the days ahead to brighten with justice, truth, peace, curiosity, love, compassion, collective care, and increased grief literacy.
☀️🌑
As always, we enjoy turning toward the seasonally-aware words of Glennie Kindred at these especially potent times of year. Her book 'Letting in the Wild Edges' introduces many different ways to engage with the cycles of the Earth and all that it contains, supports, and nourishes.
🌱🌿🌳
[ID: graphic of a black background and yellow sun. In the center, an orange circle and these words in black font: "SUMMER SOLSTICE - This is a transition moment, a recognition that a new cycle is about to begin, a moment to give thanks for the light & the dark and the opportunity this transformation brings - Glennie Kindred"]
06/05/2025
Today we honor Finlay, our beloved first child who died and was born 11 years ago today. 🦉☀️💙
He is our Wise and Vigilant Owl, our Wind Spirit, our Teacher, our Guide. He has made us braver and more compassion humans. We are eternally grateful for all that he brings into our lives and for all of his vital connections to his younger brothers, Phalen and Ren. We miss him beyond words.
Today we also honor our fellow grieving parents, especially those who don't have the privilege or capacity to make space and take time to grieve openly for their beloved dead children. May they feel our love and solidarity today and always...💞
[IG: Photo of glass vase with sunflowers, zinnias, snapdragons, and cosmos next to two glass votive candle holders and two light ble pillar candles. In front, a small black&white cup holds coal incense, next to a small wooden owl]
This is a Small-Group, Trans-Inclusive offering with Sliding-scale registration!
Some kind words from March 2025 HSPL attendees:
"As a full-spectrum birth worker, I found HSPL to be an incredible offering with an immense amount of resources. I would highly recommend it for anyone working with individuals that have or could experience perinatal loss as Joanne does a fantastic job of educating through evidence-based resources all while holding space for our own experiences of loss."
"This workshop was impactful on many different levels. As a therapist, I now have a better understanding of how to show up for my clients who are experiencing loss. As a human, I learned to connect on a deeper level with death and loss and to examine my own fears and understandings. As a participant, it was special to connect with Joanne and others in a space of shared vulnerability on this tender topic, giving a deep sense of human connection and communal empathy."
🌺 Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss supports the learning of all who (may) work with pregnant or postpartum people and families and with grieving parents: birth, death, and grief workers; medical and mental health professionals; therapists of all kinds; body and energy workers; grief group facilitators; et al.
🛠 Build Your Class is an offering for folks who want to design and facilitate their OWN class, workshop, or project. If you have an idea (or an outline) for an offering for your clients or community and would like some logistical and emotional support to manifest your class or workshop, join us!
🖌 Creative Approaches to Grief invites grievers and those who support them to explore some complementary or supplementary practices to their understanding of grief. As a small group, we'll engage in grief through embodied awareness, design, writing, and ritual. Participants receive optional activity prompts for in-between our virtual meetings.
❣️ All of our offerings are Trans-Inclusive and available on a Sliding-Scale Basis.
Please feel free to share with anyone who might be interested in this work.
03/30/2025
Last call to join this cohort of Grief Pen Pals! 📬 Register by April 1st ✍️
We consider grief in broad terms. Beyond the death of a loved one, pen pals might experience grief through: the end of a marriage, partnership or friendship; forced relocation or migration; past trauma; chronic illness; financial insecurity and/or job loss; medical diagnosis for oneself or a loved one; infertility and/or pregnancy loss; significant life transitions, including parenthood or retirement; collective grief from gun violence, warfare and genocide, racial inequity, the COVID pandemic, climate change & so on 💔💔
Pen Pals agree to a set of Network Rules that encourage compassion, self-awareness & open-mindedness. They commit to writing once a month for 6+ months. Joanne provides optional writing prompts that invite reflection & connection.
Registration is on a sliding-scale basis // invitingabundance.net/grief-pen-pals 💌
[ID: on a multi-colored background, lies a white envelope. On it reads: "Grief Pen Pal Project - Grief Support - In your Mail"]
03/25/2025
This book is such an important and timely offering from . With so much energy needed to resist and repair injustices in local, national, and global contexts, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul invites us to reflect, connect, and take action in nourishing ways.
In addition to asking readers to soulfully determine the causes and environments we wish to manifest our heart-centered skills, the book also shares important vocations that may seem secondary (but are essential) to revolutionary work.
Read. Learn. Think. Connect. Grow. Change. 🌱
[Id: outdoor photo of a hard-coveted book: 'Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways' by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun. The book cover is teal with small multi-colored flowers and a drawing of a hand holding a flower. It sits beside rocks and a pink magnolia flower]
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Driven by our experience as grieving parents and PhD researchers in the Arts and Humanities, we started Inviting Abundance in 2017 in order to offer something that didn’t yet exist. We imagined a place where grief work, individual and group education, self-care, and alternative healing combine into a holistic suite of services for people from all walks of life. This imagined place is our business, which we grow a bit each day.
Our grief journey derives its momentum from the death of our son, Finlay, on June 5, 2014. Since then, we have (mostly) shifted our attention away from academia where we had worked for nearly a decade to the interpersonal relationships forged between grievers. We have met many people suffering from the death of a loved one, infertility and pregnancy loss, a chronic illness, a heartbreaking end to a relationship, and countless other painful life experiences. These meetings led us to offer specific grief work opportunities for those who are seeking to open to grief.
The births of our second son, Phalen, and third son, Ren, added texture to our daily experience of grief. Ren in particular, who was born with a complex heart condition, teaches us the precariousness of everyday life and has challenged us to interface with the Western medical system on a weekly basis. To power ourselves, we draw from Phalen’s internal white light and Finlay’s guidance, and we attempt through the act of parenting to increase our empathy for all forms of life on this planet.
All the while, we have pursued our individual education. Will continues to be active in the academic world as editor of a book series, online journal, and articles about a wide range of topics in the Humanities, in addition to his writings on grief. After leaving academia, Joanne attained a Permaculture Design Certificate and completed an intensive 1000-hour course in Herbalism, in part to cultivate the work of Finlay’s Garden. Together, we use our various educational experiences to design online classes and individual mentorship packages to support others as they cultivate their critical, creative, scholastic, and imaginative thinking.
Moving into the next decade of the 21st Century, we hope to add more services tailored to the needs of the people we meet. If you are intrigued by our services but don’t see something that suits your particular needs, please reach out to us. Through conversation, we may very well find a way to put our extensive tapestry of skills to service for you.
- Joanne Zerdy & Will Daddario
