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Stories of resistance and empowerment
Our Healing Bells blog is a space for voices that resist, transform, and uplift. Through healing arts, musical storytelling, and co-creation, we amplify the strength of survivors of all genders; of feminists, womxn, and LGBTQIA2S+ communities.
Rooted in compassion and interdependence, each story invites empathy, courage, and reflection. From forced migration to gender-based violence, our contributors transform silence into expression, complicity into resistance, and trauma into empowerment. Join a global community grounded in social justice, creativity, and collective healing.
Stay tuned for new posts every Tuesday!
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Tengo 35 años y la semana pasada empecé a planear mi funeral.
Tengo 35 años y empecé a planear mi funeral no por miedo, sino por amor. Quiero morir en la finca cafetera de mi abuela en Colombia, rodeada de naturaleza, música y las personas que amo. Sin camas de hospital, sin funerarias. Solo paz, dignidad y belleza. Planear mi muerte me enseñó algo inesperado: me abrió por dentro. Hizo el amor más fuerte.
Yurani Cubillos
4 days ago3 min read
I am 35 years old, and last week I started planning my funeral.
Im 35 and I started planning my funeral not out of fear, but out of love. I want to die at my grandmother's coffee farm in Colombia, surrounded by nature, music, and the people I love. No hospital beds, no funeral homes. Just peace, dignity, and beauty. Planning my death taught me something unexpected: it cracked me open. It made the love louder.
Yurani Cubillos
4 days ago3 min read
It’s Not My Fault! Finding empowerment through musical storytelling
Trauma lives in the body, and so does healing. During our "Ni una más" rehearsals at Healing Bells, we sang "It's Not My Fault" and felt a shift no mental exercise alone could create. The arts engage the senses, release shame and blame, and replace them with empowerment. For Women's Herstory Month, we honor women changemakers and the healing power of community, music, and self-reclamation. Your body belongs to you. And it was never your fault.
Pamela Ruiter -Feenstra
Mar 105 min read
¿Qué sucede cuando nos apresuran a volver a la “normalidad” después de una experiencia traumática?
¿Qué sucede cuando a Puerto Vallarta se le pide volver a la normalidad después de una experiencia traumática? El humo se disipa, las calles reabren, y aun así el cuerpo recuerda. El duelo colectivo vive en hombros tensos y en la respiración corta.
Como inmigrante sostenida y sanada por esta ciudad, sentí a la vez seguridad y tristeza. Cuando nos apresuramos a dejar atrás lo que nos sacudió, algo queda guardado en el interior. El sistema nervioso todavía necesita tiempo para r
Yurani Cubillos
Mar 43 min read
What happens when we are rushed back to “Business as Usual” after a traumatic experience?
What happens when Puerto Vallarta is asked to return to business as usual after a traumatic experience. Smoke clears, streets reopen, and yet the body remembers. Collective grief lives in tight shoulders and shallow breath. As an immigrant held and healed by this city, I felt both safety and sorrow. When we rush past what shook us, something stays stored inside. The nervous system still needs time to breathe.
Yurani Cubillos
Mar 43 min read
The Six Principles of the Black Perspective: Lived Experience Wisdom and Truth
Black History Month cannot be confined to February. At Howard University, The Black Perspective reframes social work through affirmation, strengths, inclusion, and liberation. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Inabel Burns Lindsay, its six tenets flip the narrative from dehumanizing misinformation to truth, celebrating differences and centering lived experience as a path toward justice.
Pamela Ruiter -Feenstra
Feb 246 min read
Considerando mi impermanencia. Sentándome con las Nueve Contemplaciones de la Muerte
Al reflexionar sobre las Nueve Contemplaciones de la Muerte, exploro cómo mirar la impermanencia con honestidad transforma mi relación con el cuerpo, el apego y la identidad, abriendo espacio para la compasión, la presencia y una aceptación más profunda de la vida tal como es, invitándonos a vivir con mayor verdad mientras estamos aquí.
Yurani Cubillos
Feb 104 min read
Considering My Impermanence Sitting With the Nine Contemplations of Death
Reflecting on the Nine Contemplations of Death, I explore how facing impermanence with honesty reshapes my relationship with the body, attachment, and identity, opening space for compassion, presence, and a deeper acceptance of life as it is, inviting us to live more truthfully while we are here.
Yurani Cubillos
Feb 104 min read
Every Day is MLK Day; No One is an Outsider
MLK Day is more than a moment of remembrance. It is a call to continued action. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy reminds us that justice cannot be postponed or confined to a single day. From his Letter from a Birmingham Jail to his vision of collective humanity, Dr. King challenged us to confront injustice, recognize our interconnectedness, and invest in systems rooted in dignity, care, and belonging for all people.
Pamela Ruiter -Feenstra
Feb 34 min read
Curiosity has taken me places where fear would never let me go
Curiosity has guided me through danger, tenderness, migration, and change. From my childhood in Colombia to the risks I took as an adult, it became the force that kept me moving, listening, and learning. That same curiosity now leads me toward death work, teaching me how to hold space for endings with the same openness I once had for beginnings.
Yurani Cubillos
Jan 275 min read
La curiosidad me ha llevado a lugares a los que el miedo nunca me habría permitido ir
La curiosidad me ha guiado a través del peligro, la ternura, el desplazamiento y el cambio. Desde mi infancia en Colombia hasta los riesgos que asumí en la adultez, se convirtió en la fuerza que me mantuvo en movimiento, escuchando y aprendiendo. Esa misma curiosidad ahora me conduce hacia el trabajo con la muerte, enseñándome a sostener espacio para los finales con la misma apertura que alguna vez tuve para los comienzos.
Yurani Cubillos
Jan 275 min read
Let's Mend
This blog weaves poetry, music, and wisdom into a meditation on our shared humanity. Through an original poem, words from Maya Angelou, and Connor Chee’s piano piece “Weaving,” the arts reveal how interdependence sustains us. Like a tapestry, each thread matters. When we protect one another, compassion, equity, and connection can mend what feels fractured.
Pamela Ruiter -Feenstra
Jan 204 min read
I sat with Death, and It sat with Me: facing mortality and becoming a death doula
Facing mortality changed my pace. Illness taught me to listen, to stay present, and to honor care, creativity, and shared healing.
Yurani Cubillos
Jan 134 min read
Me senté con la muerte, y ella se sentó conmigo: en presencia de la mortalidad y el llamado a convertirme en death doula
Enfrentar la mortalidad cambió mi ritmo. La enfermedad me enseñó a escuchar, a estar presente y a honrar el cuidado y la sanación compartida
Yurani Cubillos
Jan 134 min read
A Dream Swish, A Fresh Start: What if We Lived A Fear-Free Life? What if We Lived a Love-Centered Life?
A half-dream question opens this 2026 series on liberation, rest, and love. Inspired by bell hooks, we reflect on what it means to live without fear and choose a love-centered life rooted in self-care, community, and freedom. Through reflection and collective wisdom, we are invited to imagine healing as resistance and love as a path toward justice and belonging.
Pamela Ruiter -Feenstra
Jan 65 min read
Planting Connection in Tender Seasons: Grief, Third Spaces, and the Joy We Grow Together
Tender seasons often bring grief to the surface, even when life keeps moving. We grieve people, plans, and versions of ourselves, while still discovering joy through connection. In shared third spaces, beaches, writing circles, quiet gatherings, we are not rushed to heal or explain. We listen, witness, and allow grief and joy to exist together, like roses and thorns growing in the same garden.
Yurani Cubillos
Dec 23, 20253 min read
Sembrar conexión en tiempos frágiles: Duelo, espacios compartidos y la alegría que cultivamos juntos
Los tiempos frágiles suelen despertar el duelo, incluso cuando la vida continúa. Acompañamos pérdidas, expectativas no cumplidas y versiones de quienes fuimos, mientras también reconocemos la alegría que nace en la conexión. En espacios compartidos, como círculos de escritura o encuentros tranquilos, no se exige sanar rápido. El duelo y la alegría conviven, como espinas y rosas en un mismo jardín.
Yurani Cubillos
Dec 23, 20253 min read
Cuando la tradición deja de sentirse familiar
Cuando las tradiciones comienzan a sentirse pesadas en lugar de nutritivas, algo dentro de nosotros se transforma. En esta reflexión, Yurani Cubillos explora el valor de decir no, de soltar expectativas y de crear encuentros arraigados en el cuidado, la curiosidad y la honestidad. Una invitación suave a imaginar el hogar como un espacio donde es posible descansar, pertenecer y ser plenamente quienes somos.
Yurani Cubillos
Dec 16, 20253 min read
When Tradition Stops Feeling Like Home
When traditions begin to feel heavy instead of nourishing, something inside us shifts. In this reflection, Yurani Cubillos explores the courage it takes to say no, to release expectations, and to create gatherings rooted in care, curiosity, and honesty. A gentle invitation to reimagine home as a place where we can rest, belong, and be fully ourselves.
Yurani Cubillos
Dec 16, 20253 min read
La curiosidad es cuidado. Cómo los terceros espacios florecen cuando estamos presentes
La curiosidad se vuelve un acto de cuidado cuando desaceleramos lo suficiente para notar a las personas que sostienen nuestros terceros espacios. La comunidad sobrevive gracias a la atención, la responsabilidad y la decisión sencilla de estar presentes. Esta reflexión nos invita a pausar, escuchar y apoyar los lugares donde la pertenencia crece.
Yurani Cubillos
Dec 9, 20254 min read
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