Grief Classes, Workshops & Projects; Reiki Sessions & Classes; Teaching, Learning & Writing Support We both earned our Ph.D. degrees by the age of 29.
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.
Chapters:
Intro: Laugh at Your Own Risk
1: How This Is Funny
2: Seriously Funny: Actual Cynicism
3: Fall Silent to Begin
4: Strange Bedfellows? Anton Chekhov and Kent Monkman
5: The Comedy of “We” the People
6: Laughing to Break Out: Trump and Ordinary Psychosis
7: Memes, or “Plus Les Choses Changent, Plus Les Choses Restent Les Mêmes”
8: Conclusion: Against an Active Addiction to the Same
We'd love to get this book onto library shelves (especially as it's a bit pricey!). So if you have connections at a university or public library, please consider asking the institution to order a copy! Then, it'll be available to read for you and your neighbors to read for free 🥰
Which photo of Will do you prefer?? 🙂 OR 😲
09/29/2025
Do you work with pregnant and/or postpartum folks? Do you support those who have experienced perinatal loss? Are you interested in deepening your understanding of pregnancy + infant loss? Do you wish to expand your resources to support those in your community who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, baby loss, et. al?
🍁 This 5-hour course -- https://invitingabundance.net/holding-space-for-pregnancy-loss-training -- was designed with supporters, care providers, and space holders in mind. It equips participants with an understanding of grief as a natural, normal, and healthy response to deep loss and painful transition. And it shares various resources for bereaved parents and families, including practical supports and ideas for meaningful rituals.
🍁 If you are called to birth or death work OR if you work as a medical or mental health provider OR if you want to be a community advocate for bereaved families, I warmly invite you to check out this online course.
🍁 Joanne teaches the course with the embodied experience of a grieving parent AND the academic background as a researcher and educator.
[Id: At top: garland graphic of autumn leaves & acorns. Beneath: "Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss - 5-hour online training - October 1 & 8- Deepen your understanding; Grow your resources" Below that: the logos of and ]
09/24/2025
Welcome, Autumn. 🍂 We send our Northern Hemisphere friends a heart-felt wish for a meaningful autumnal season full of warmth and collective care.
🍁 May you feel the vibrancy of your connections across the veil.
🍁 May our beloved dead guide us all toward healthier, more equitable, inclusive, and generative futures for humans and the more-than-human world...
And...
❤️F🧡r💛e🤎e🖤 ❤️P🤎a🤍l🧡e❤️s🧡t💛i🤎n🖤e
[ID: light orange background. In the center a pale yellow circle. These words in black font: "Autumn invites us to deepen our relationships with our dead loved ones. May we slow down, quiet our minds, and ground ourselves enough to feel their presence and absorb their wisdom." Autumnal-colored leaves frame the circle on the top-left and bottom-right.]
09/04/2025
08/30/2025
On this day, some mimosa. This plant ally has been used to uplift the spirit (flowers) and to provide grounding (bark) for centuries. May it invite you to reflect on the personal and collective grief that you are feeling today. 💔❤️🩹💞
And some reminders for those who need them today (and tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...):
-Your Grief Matters
-Grieving is Hard Work and Heart Work
-Grieving Takes Time... and That's Okay
-Grieving is Healing
-"Grief demands to be seen. It demands to be heard. It demands a
channel of expression. " - Dr. Joanne Cacciatore
-Grief Changes Everything
-Grief doesn't end. It transforms... and it transforms us.
-Grief Can Tear You Down. How You Rebuild is Up to You.
-Grief Connects Us All
08/27/2025
We created Build Your Class to support the amazing people who want to do vital work in their communities -- as facilitators, teachers, healers, inspirers, organizers, et al. https://invitingabundance.net/build-your-class
If you have an idea to create a project, class, or workshop for your clients or broader community and you need some support (logistical and/or emotional) in putting your idea into the world, please consider joining us next month.
Through small group discussions and practical exercises, you'll gain confidence to manifest your offering. We need all of the compassionate, thoughtful, and creative souls to be doing their work in the weeks, months, and years to come!
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"]
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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
