Happy New Year!!

After the sudden loss of her mother, Diandra Ford-Wing made the courageous decision to pause her thriving corporate career—choosing healing over momentum, reflection over productivity. That decision became the seed for her debut novel, Red Bird, a deeply moving exploration of loss, resilience, and becoming.

Today, Diandra advocates for grief-literate workplaces—challenging organizations, universities, and leaders to move beyond outdated bereavement policies and toward cultures where people are supported through life’s hardest moments.

https://www.booksbydiandra.com

https://www.diandraspeaks.com

My Torok and I are filming a seasonal digital installation. This is Winter

Welcome to Come to the Brink.

I’m Zoë Flowers.

This is the space where we gather in truth— where we talk about the grief that lingers, the moments that shape us, and the sacred pauses that bring us back to ourselves.

Today’s episode is different. There are no guests. Just me. And a year I didn’t plan to have

This is a throwback episode to earlier this year, when I was invited to be part of a roundtable talk hosted by the Black Women Talking Back Podcast about the women of SINNERS. It was a spirited conversation for sure!

Welcome to Come to the Brink, the place where we tell the truth about what breaks us, what remakes us, and what it takes to keep going when life drags you to the edge. This is where we meet the parts of ourselves we’ve avoided, the parts we’ve abandoned, and the parts that are still here — waiting for us — even when we think we’re out of time, out of breath, or out of courage.

Today, I’m talking about yet another thing we as women don’t talk about enough...menopause. Well, to clarify, I am talking about my Hero's Journey to Menopause. A journey that included generational trauma, the return of uterine fibroids, a hospital stay during Covid, several blood transfusions, a little help from my friends, a menopause support group, clueless doctors, and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

I sat down with my long-term colleague Aleese Moore Orbih to talk about how spirituality, art, and healing practice revolutionized my work in the gender-based violence movement.

Welcome to Come to the Brink. This is where we gather — the grievers, the dreamers, the builders — to speak honestly about what it means to live through endings and still create.

My guests today are Fiona Oliphant and Cassie Whitebread of Healing Equity United, an organization dedicated to centering those living at the margins by valuing lived experience, amplifying marginalized voices, and realigning power within institutions and communities.

Their recent article, “Preparing for the Future Means Feeling Now,” reminds us that numbness is not neutrality is the only way through this dystopian nightmare.

Fiona brings decades of experience as a legal advocate, executive director, public speaker, and Jamaican-American mother with an unshakable belief that collectively we can end violence and oppression.

Cassie is a radical educator, coach, and community builder — a former teacher turned consultant who helps organizations operationalize equity through honesty, care, and connection. She believes that transformation starts with courageous conversations and collective action.

Click the link below to reference the article mentioned in the podcast

Link to original article (https://bit.ly/start-with-feeling)

Connect with Healing Equity United

info@healingequityunited.com

www.healingequityunited.com

HEU Linkedin | HEU Instagram

Register for the upcoming conference!

Rooted & Rising: A Virtual Gathering for Healing, Connection & Collective Action (bit.ly/RootedandRisingHEU)

Feb. 5, 2026

9 am - 2 pm PT | 12 - 5 pm ET

Earlybird registration is open until December 15!

In times marked by grief, uncertainty, and the urgent need for justice, Rooted & Rising offers space to pause, replenish, and reimagine what’s possible together in 2026. Through story circles, experiential healing practices, and action-oriented breakout sessions, participants will leave grounded in community and inspired to take meaningful next steps.

My conversation with Debbie Weiss was so inspiring,

Debbie is the bestselling author of On Second Thought…Maybe I Can! and The Sprinkle Effect. For over 40 years, she was the family caregiver. She took care of her father from age 17-49, her son, and later her husband. Along the way, she lost herself in the roles she was carrying. At 50, she chose to start living for herself. Nine years later, at 59, she became a widow. Because of the shifts she'd already made, she was able to walk through grief with resilience and continue creating a meaningful, joyful life.

She now teaches women how to use her Sprinkle Effect™ Method, See It, Sprinkle It, Shift It, as a way to move from feeling stuck to possibility and purpose.

debbie@debbierweiss.com

www.debbierweiss.com

https://www.instagram.com/debbie.r.weiss/

https://www.tiktok.com/@debbierweiss