Walking Through the Fire: A Mother's Initiation

Honoring 10 Years Since the Passing of My Daughter, Dyllan Kianna Wicks

There are initiations you choose.And there are initiations that choose you.

Some arrive wrapped in beauty, vision, or spiritual calling.Others come cloaked in fire, grief, and the unbearable.

Birthing Dyllan into this world, for me, was all of these.

This July marked 10 years since the day my daughter, Dyllan Kianna Wicks, became an ancestor. Ten years since the moment my own heart cracked open, never to be the same.

A Decade of Remembering

Ten years is both a lifetime and the blink of an eye.

In these ten years, I’ve walked with grieving mothers, guided ceremonies of mourning and transformation, and sat in silence with those navigating their own dark nights.

What I know now is this:Grief does not disappear.It ripens. It deepens.It becomes a companion and a teacher.

I carry Dyllan’s essence with me—every day.Not just in memory, but in presence.In breath. In prayer. In every sacred space I hold.

Dyllan’s Life: A Sacred Teaching

From the moment she arrived, Dyllan Kianna Wicks carried a fierce, otherworldly light.

Born with a rare congenital heart condition, her life included multiple open-heart surgeries and, a heart transplant.She lived five full, mighty years—years filled with ceremony, laughter, music, and magic.

She was wise. Funny. Tender and strong.She lived with an unapologetic sparkle.She made people feel—and remember what mattered.

The Day of Her Crossing

On July 19, 2015, we wrapped her in prayer, in family, in ceremony.We sang her across the threshold.

And even in the depths of that grief—perhaps because I had prepared my whole life in some unconscious way—Spirit was near.

I felt her move from form to essence.I felt her freedom.And I knew: she was not gone.

She had simply become something vaster than a body could hold.

Fire as Initiation

No lineage, degree, or training could prepare me for the initiation of mothering a child back home to Spirit.

But this fire refined me.It called forth capacities I didn’t know I had.

The fire burned away illusion.It asked me to live from truth.To stay with sorrow.To let love hurt and heal all at once.

This is what real initiation does.It takes you to the edge—and walks with you through the unknown.

Ten Years Later: The Medicine That Remains

Now, a decade later, Dyllan’s teachings continue.

I feel her in the breath of a client releasing old grief.In the stillness before I open sacred space.In the courage it takes to show up fully—heart unzipped, nothing hidden.

She made me who I am today.She initiated me into this path.And I walk it not only for myself and her sister—but with her.

If You Are in the Fire Now

Whether you are grieving a loved one, a former version of yourself, or the state of the world, I want you to know:

✨ Your grief is not too much.✨ You don’t have to carry it alone.✨ The fire that burns you can also forge you.

This is sacred ground.Let’s walk it together.

Offerings in Her Honor

🕊️ Grief Rituals & Circles – Held throughout the year to honor loss and transformation.🕊️ 1:1 Grief Healing Sessions – Personalized support, somatic care, and ritual space.🕊️ The Heart Zipper Story (Book in Progress) – A living tribute to Dyllan, grief, and the mystery of love that never dies.

With all my love,Dayna

In reverent memory of Dyllan Kianna Wicks (2010–2015),whose heart continues to guide me in life, in death, and in all that lies between.