Do you too have life lessons that keep showing up—same message, different day? One of the recurring messages in my life is that grief is a pathway to healing. Actually, let me rephrase that. My recent experience of fall-on-my-knees grief revealed, once again, that grief is a pathway to living and loving fully.
My first memorial service took place on Zoom, just a couple weeks ago. We were honouring the life of a dear friend from my church, who died of complications related to a cancer he had been living with these last few years. I suppose I’m fortunate to have gone through nearly thirty years of life without anyone close to me dying. In fact, I’ve only been to one funeral, that of someone I can’t say I knew very well. This is all to say, I still feel quite new to realities of mortality and the rituals that fall under what we at Willow call “Departure Directions.”
I was sitting at the wobbly picnic table at my campsite on beautiful Vancouver Island, at a family French camp we’ve attended for many years. My now teenage daughter is on an overnight trip, leaving me with lots of time on my hands. Instead of the excitement of anticipated “me time”, I feel off. I’m…
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Dear reader, Here’s a peek into Michelle’s recent process of writing an End of Life Love Letter to her mom.
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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In this wee Q+A, Reena and Michelle reflect on their personal spiritual traditions and share about the soul-food and spiritual gems that nourish and inspire them.
If you’ve thought about writing lasting messages to people you love and for future generations but haven’t, maybe it’s because…
Are you ready to flower and flourish, or is it time to pause? Get some insights from John O’Donohue’s “For the Interim Time.”
