Crossroads Death Coaching

07/22/2022

https://lithub.com/when-death-comes-an-oncology-nurse-finds-solace-in-mary-oliver/

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. –Mary Oliver, “Sometimes” * When I was a new-to-practice oncology nurse, I was a walking, talking ball of anxiety. There…

09/09/2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FSJH0Exo0w

Stephen Jenkinson's book Die Wise is for everyone who is not going to pull off eternity after all. It places death at the center of the page and asks us to u...

04/30/2020

https://www.wired.com/story/stewart-brand-ventilator-end-of-life-care/

The legendary thinker and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog raises a public conversation about end-of-life care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

04/13/2020

https://www.spiritmoving.org/blog1/the-feral-nature-of-grief?fbclid=IwAR1R03WwggzfIMUpYhxaEp-qCDLC936np98zY8xINZNtTblc2xgYL7PMlZI

03/23/2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-grief-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-how-will-the-way-we-mourn-change/?fbclid=IwAR3P0t9m7loANeZKQx3QX9Xi_ieCX3e4sV5c5aN4ViwRhyVtU8nnlMeIEqI

Ashes to ashes, adjust adjust: The ancient, deeply human instinct to physically gather in times of death has now run up against social-distancing practices. But COVID-19 might just serve as an opportunity to make the ways we grieve better

01/25/2020

https://lithub.com/our-experience-of-grief-is-unique-as-a-fingerprint/?fbclid=IwAR0TNoab_NOl5TH4FqoY5StQwmjEr9Rk90wcGQZUtFm6T69t_WVTLyHn030

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. –Elie Wiesel Each person’s grief is as unique as their fingerprint. But what everyone has in common is that no matter how they grieve, they share …

11/11/2019

https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/sweet-sweet-death-honey-in-death-rituals/

There is a strong symbolic bond between rites of passage and honey. Ancient documents depict and record the substance being used in marriage, birth and especially in death rites. For many cultures,…

10/31/2019

https://www.deathwithdignity.org/faqs/

How can I use a Death with Dignity law? What are the assisted su***de states 2016? How can I access a doctor for legal assisted death?

10/31/2019

https://www.ted.com/playlists/511/finding_and_bringing_closure

Death is hard, and suffering from the subsequent loss is even harder. These talks focus on the journey to finding closure and reaching the end of difficult chapters in life.

05/20/2019

In it's mystery, death calls on us to rest in a place of not knowing. Regardless of our beliefs, the ideas we have, the scientific evidence and the spiritual musings, our true knowing of death and the afterlife remain elusive. We know only that this life as we know it, our life, will cease to continue. I've heard it said that birth is life's longing for itself but death too can be seen in this way. It is the coming home and fulfillment of our own perfect circle Death asks that we sit without knowledge, without desire. Death asks that we journey alone, that we yield, that we accept that our lives are governed by the same energy that moves the stars across the sky. Death asks us to say goodbye; to know, that by the simple act of loving and being loved that there is pain and loss and sadness. Meister Eckhardt said that we do not find God through a process of addition but by a process of subtraction. Death calls us to journey through the empty places. It is through the process of being hollowed out by our endings that we reach a deeper understanding of what it means to celebrate the fullness of the lives we have lived. ~ Crossroads Death Coaching

05/19/2019

Francis Weller writes about the five gates of grief. "The third gate being the sorrows of the world. Amongst the grief we all experience is the sorrow at what is happening in the world. The cumulative grief of the world is overwhelming". It is a skillful thing to stay open and hold joy when we are all witness to the endless assaults on the biosphere and on our fellow travelers. Weller goes on to share Naomi Nye's beautiful lines: "Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorry as the other deepest thing".
Our sorrow is the other side of our love and joy. In a world that would have you bypass our sorrow and fast forward into the all things shiny world of performance, perfection and production it is time for us to remember the wisdom that grief is a proper and healthy response to loss. " We cannot grieve for something that we feel is outside the circle of our worth."
When you rush to bypass your sense of loss what are you telling your heart and soul about what you have loved? In order to move beyond the sterile structures of the patriarchy we must dismantle its lies. Grief, loss and sorrow do not disclude happiness, gratitude and wholeness- We are not broken when we know grief- we are holding the wholeness of what we have loved, lost and hoped for.