The Blog
The Transformative Power of Preparing for Death
"Preparing for death is one of the most profoundly healing acts of a lifetime" ~ Stephen Levine ~ This is the beginning of a series of entries inspired by Stephen Levine’s book, A Year to Live. During his work with the dying, he found that the healing and transformative power...
Advance Care Directives are an Act of LOVE
"If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your family." ~ Dr. Asha Shajahan ~ Filling out an advance care directive is an act of love, not just for our family and friends, but for ourselves. I found that once I had filled out my directive and spoken...
A Broken Hallelujah
Love is not some kind of victory march, No it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah ~ Leonard Cohen ~ Recently, a good friend of mine died after suffering extreme pain from an aggressive lung cancer that had spread throughout her body. I spent a lot of time with...
Why Choose Green Burial?
"The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. The earth...
Your Legacy Is Your Greatest Gift
“Stories break through into heart spaces.” ~ Ram Dass ~ In the year or so before Ram Dass died, he co-authored a book called Walking Each Other Home. In it, he and his good friend Mirabai Bush talked about the process of walking through the last days of his life...
The Year of Magical Thinking
“I finished getting dinner, I set the table in the living room where when we were home alone, we could eat within sight of the fire. . . “I lit the candles. John asked for a second drink before sitting down. I gave it to him. We sat down. My...
Gifts at the End of Life
“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,Open your heart wide unto the body of life.For life and death are one,even as the river and the sea are one. . .And when the earth shall claim your limbs,Then shall you truly dance.”~ Kahlil Gibran ~ One undeniable truth that...