Our Story
Driven by our experience as grieving parents, educators, and PhD researchers in the Arts and Humanities, we started Inviting Abundance in order to offer something that didn’t yet exist. We imagined a place where grief work, individual and group education, and self- and collective-care (see Reiki and Finlay’s Garden) 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 first child, our son Finlay, on June 5, 2014. Since then, we have shifted our attention away from academia where we had worked for nearly a decade to the interpersonal relationships forged between humans and our more-than-human world. Specifically, we’ve worked with many grievers and those who support the bereaved. We’ve met many people suffering from the death of a loved one, 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, have added new textures to our grief work and personal learning journeys. Ren was born with a complex heart condition, which has required two open-heart surgeries. While his medical needs have challenged us to interface very intensively with the Western medical system, he teaches us every day about healing, strength, and resilience. Phalen, diagnosed autism spectrum disorder, as a 6-year-old, helps us to broaden our understanding of sensory attunement, accommodation, and flexibility. As we parent each of our three children, we actively increase our empathy for all forms of life on this planet.
All the while, we pursue our individual educations and creative collaborations. 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. He is also now a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Clinical Addictions Specialist in Private Practice and is the Lead Therapist at Nova Transformations. After leaving academia, Joanne attained a Permaculture Design Certificate and completed a 1000-hour course in Herbalism, in part to cultivate the work of Finlay’s Garden, her wee online apothecary. Together, we use our varied educational experiences to design online classes and individual mentorship packages to help others experience the joy of critical, creative, compassionate, intuitive, and imaginative thinking.
As we continue to grow professionally and personally, we hope to add more services and projects tailored to the needs of the people we meet. If you are intrigued by our offerings 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.
- with care, Joanne Zerdy & Will Daddario
Meet Will
(He/His pronouns)
Outgoing and contemplative. Assertive and compassionate. Exuberant and disciplined. I think of myself as the fusion of opposites and as a synthesizer of disparate worlds. A licensed clinical mental health counselor, scholar of performance, theatre history, and philosophy, I helped to create an international organization of artists and intellectuals, published widely, presented at numerous international conferences, and cultivated a rigorous pedagogical practice. Following the deaths of my father and my son, I began to incorporate poetry, esoteric philosophy, and active grief work into my daily life. Poetry reminds me of language’s power to create and modify the world in which we live. Esoteric philosophy leads me to systems of thought beyond the Western epistemology in which I was raised and educated. Grief work challenges me to recognize the co-presence of grief and love, life and death, joy and melancholy, and many other sensations that too often stand apart as opposites on an imagined hierarchy of emotions. My aim is to increase my participation in the Oneness of the world each day, to dissolve boundaries where they need not exist, and to create tiny changes to Earth.
Meet Joanne
(She/Her pronouns)
As a young child, I felt a pull toward teaching and reading. Always curious, I developed a deep love of learning that guided my formal education as I studied English Literature and Theatre in Pittsburgh, London, Edinburgh, & Minneapolis. A deep appreciation for travel unfurled as I moved from one program to the next, visiting nearby cities (in the US) and countries (in Europe). When visiting new places, I invariably found myself seeking out botanical gardens, nature sanctuaries, and parks. My transition away from academia has been an organic process. Instead of researching organizations that help restore and strengthen social and environmental eco-systems, I now undertake this important work as a creative grief worker, online educator, gardener, and herbalist. I completed Reiki I training in 2015, earned my Permaculture Design Certification in 2016, and completed a (55-hr) study to facilitate Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss trainings. Additionally, I completed a 1000-hr Herbal Immersion program in 2019. All of my work is deeply informed by my greatest teachers, my sons, Finlay Emilio, Phalen Sage, and Ren Stephen.
"I learn by going where I have to go."
-Theodore Roethke, "The Waking"