Whether you’re aware of it or not, your past informs your present. Previous experiences you’ve had with illness, dying, death, grief, and how someone was cared for after they died, have undoubtedly impacted you in some way, shape or form. Every aspect of a death has likely influenced your sense of what’s possible and what’s…
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A few months ago I was at a social gathering and the conversation moved to my world of work. As if he’d heard the answer many times before, he asked “So, you’re going to tell me that the first thing I need to do is write a will, right?” “Actually, no.” I said, “The first…
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Lately I’ve been listening to video recordings from a conference that happened last year with Ram Dass and Friends, called No Death, No Fear. In a video called “The Soul Complex” and in previous talks and writing, Ram Dass explains that as we reduce our fear and denial of death, we begin to appreciate the…
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Mary Oliver’s words speak to my yearning to make this life—my life—matter. My desire to live a life with meaning calls me to reflect, to contemplate and to get clear about who and what matter. The thing is, and maybe you relate here, I find it very hard to create time and space for this type of discernment. Believe it or not, planning for my inevitable death, helps create that time and space.
This holiday season I devoured the The Productivity Project, by Chris Bailey. His message reinforces why so many people tend to put off end-of-life planning for “some day.” We can flip our procrastination triggers and get into action with anything, including end-of-life planning.
The heart of Willow’s work is inquiries around death and dying. We often begin with the simple question, “What are your fears around your death and dying?” The answers are as diverse as they are universal. While I’ve written and said aloud a variety of answers on many occasions, my common response is that I…
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I yearn for more remembering and honouring the dead in my life. I feel enlivened and inspired when I reflect on the relationship, lineage and opportunity that I’ve been gifted by those who’ve come before and died before me.
In the Jewish tradition the mourners are a distinct group. They are the parents, children, siblings and spouse of the deceased. At the funerals I went to while growing up in Montreal, the mourners sat in a special section upfront near the closed casket and the rabbi. I remember feeling envious of them in a…
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“When we understand about death, we understand a lot more about life.” This was the key message I heard from Barbara Bartolome when she shared the story of her near-death experience at a event hosted by a local chapter of the International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS). Barbara is one of millions of “experiencers”…
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