6 Life Lessons From a Man Who’s Seen 12,000 Deaths
This video features Bhairav Shukla, who was manager for 44 years of a guest house for the dying in a place called Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India. The same town is also know as Kashi by Hindus, many of … Continue reading →
Personal rituals to carry us through grief
‘Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.’ Rabindranath Tagore I hesitated to use the word ‘ritual’ in this blog post. I’ve noticed some people associate that term exclusively with indoctrinated religious … Continue reading →
How Preparing for Grief and Death Benefit us in Life
Imagine enduring the process of childbirth if you didn’t know you were pregnant and thought you were ill and in a lot of pain. It would be much more frightening than if you knew, and had known for many months, … Continue reading →
A Nun with a Sense of Humour
Someone who died local to me earlier this month and whose funeral I led was described as having a ‘wicked sense of humour.’ She was also someone who was in touch with her spiritual nature and sought to work on … Continue reading →
Healthy Grief: How Do You Feel About Bowing to Someone Who’s Died?
Bowing to someone who has died can feel rather unnatural to those of us raised in the West. We’re not used to bowing in daily life. We might associate it with submission or subservience, which can be uncomfortable positions to … Continue reading →
Touching Video on the Art of Natural Death Care and How it Helps to Heal and Unite Loved Ones
Making life worth living in the face of death.
Lucy Kalanithi shares the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis. She reflects on life and purpose in the face of this turning in point in her life. “Engaging in … Continue reading →
Grief: Does Time Really Heal?
Grief can be felt as a wide variety of different bodily and emotional sensations. According to the American psychotherapist, Dave Richo, grief arises from a combination of 3 emotions – sadness, anger and fear. We feel sad that something has … Continue reading →
To Close or Not to Close…the Curtains.
It’s potentially the lowest, saddest point in the funeral ceremony, the crux where we must truly face the inevitable and, having celebrated a life, say our final farewells. Some call this part of the ceremony ’the goodbye’. More traditionally it’s … Continue reading →
Say your truths and seek them in others…
…especially when death is near. ‘Be like a new kind of first responder…the one to take the first courageous step toward the other.’
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