If You Died Tomorrow, Would Your People Know What To Do?

If someone you love were to die tomorrow, would you know what to do? If you died tomorrow, would people you love know what to do? Come spend the day with Willow EOL Educators™ and a fabulous group of curious mortals talking about how you want to be cared for after you die, way before you *think* you need to. 

In our society where the denial of death is the norm, most people have no interest in spending a whole day talking with others about end-of-life planning. Many imagine the topic to be morbid and depressing. But not so! Here are three reasons why attending a “funeral planning” workshop could brighten your day and your life!

• You will discover what’s important to both your life and your death.

Departure Directions™ is Willow’s term for your written instructions or guidelines—determined by your values, beliefs and priorities—for how you wish to be cared for and remembered after you die.

Choices people make around how they want to be cared for and laid to rest (often called “funeral planning”) have practical and symbolic intentions and implications in the present and over time. For individuals as well as families, communities and cultures, these choices are influenced by many factors that intersect psycho-social, spiritual, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions.

When you explore such things as your relationship to your body / corpse and how you’re impacted by cultural, spiritual and community traditions it will quite likely propel you to explore these same factors with respect to how you’re living. If you live your life with strong values around ecological and social justice, then why should your death not reflect those same values? 

• You’ll learn about a variety of options you probably never heard of before.

When folks think of funeral planning, they often don’t think all that hard. Sometimes people will say “Oh, I have it in my will that I want to be cremated”...or maybe you’ve said that yourself! But trust us: when it comes to what happens after death, there’s so much more to think about, and so many options that you likely never considered.  

Another thing we’ve noticed is that “funeral planning” makes folks think about the services or ceremony after a death has occurred.  By considering your “Departure Directions™” instead of just your funeral plans, you’ll actually have time to dig into all the questions that need to be answered BEFORE a funeral occurs.  

To get a sense of what is included in your Departure Directions™ download Wiilow’s free tool: 9 Things to Include in Your Departure Directions™. 

And the beauty of Willow’s day-long session is that you can really explore the choices and options available to you, without stress or pressure and with a clear head.  Because if we know anything, we know that…

• The worst time to make important decisions is while you’re grieving.

In 1962, John F Kennedy said “The time to fix the roof is while the sun is shining”, which is really a nicer way of saying that waiting until you NEED to plan a funeral—to actually plan a funeral—is a really bad idea. Even if you start planning when you’re asked to “get your affairs in order” or after a peaceful and expected death, you’ll still be dealing with grief, overwhelm, and in all likelihood a lack of knowledge about something that is actually really important to get right.

If you wait until you need to make these arrangements instead of taking time to thoughtfully consider your options ahead of time, you’re really setting yourself up for a negative “shopping experience”.  And believe us, this is one purchase you can’t avoid!  Funerals in Canada cost on average of about $9,000 but range in price from $1,500-$60,000 plus.  By planning ahead, not only are you likely to save money, you’re going to know what really matters to you NOW…because after all, that’s what matters in the end, too.

When you think about it, there are no other purchases of this magnitude that folks go into with as little planning and consideration as they do when they are purchasing anything to do with end-of-life, after-death care. Most of us spend more time researching phone plans than we do thinking about how to look after ourselves or someone we love when they die.

It doesn’t have to be that way though: come, spend the day with us. You’ll see how enlivening, connecting, and inspiring thinking about death can really be and you’ll leave with something important written down! 

Learn more and sign up for this event and other Willow Workshops on Willow’s events page. If you would like to see an event like this in your community, get in touch and let us know where you are and that you would like to attend or sponsor an event.