Finding Her Wings
What if we already have what we need to meet every moment as it arises? This is a story about a client who chose to voluntarily stop eating and drinking. It explores how self-awareness, honesty, and allowing things to be as they are can provide the fortitude to meet death with grace and allow for the sacred to meet us in that threshold by trusting what is rather than what we would like.
Understanding VSED
VSED (Voluntarily Stopping Eating & Drinking) is an end-of-life option that is legal in all 50 United States. Just as it sounds, it means to voluntarily refuse all food and liquids, including those taken through a feeding tube, with the understanding that this will cause you to die. It is a legally recognized and protected constitutional right for a mentally competent person to refuse medical treatment, including food and hydration, to hasten their death.
Community Spotlight: Meet Brynn
Get to know one of our beloved community members, Brynn Albanese in the latest edition of The Community Corner Spotlight.
Dust to Dust - What is Terramation?
It goes by many names: terramation, human composting, soil transformation, natural organic reduction (NOR), recomposition, and body composting. It is one of the many options now available as an alternative to burial or cremation and is quickly gaining popularity as one of the most environmentally friendly options for disposing of your remains.
Death Culture in Peru’s Sacred Valley
The Wisdom of Andean culture holds the belief that we are beings of light. We come here, from the Absolute Sun, to be in communion with our Cosmic Mother, Pachamama, our Cosmic Father, the Four Directions, our Ancestors, the Apus; to dance and thrive with Love and Spirit. To honor our relationship with Mother Earth and the Cosmos as we grow from seeds of Divine Consciousness within the container of physical “time” and “space”.
Why are we so weird about death? Bringing death more visibly into the cultural fold.
Let’s face it—the American death culture is dysfunctional. Just this month I attended a wellness event in Los Angeles where Bryan Johnson, founder of Don’t Die, promised his eager audience that biological aging and dying are outright unnecessary. It’s as if acknowledging mortality is an act of treason against the preferred “live forever” mindset.
When death does arrive, it’s too often treated like a medical failure with its spiritual significance neglected. American funerals are traditionally somber, hurried affairs of dry-eyed propriety, with the deceased cremated or tucked away in a sealed coffin. There’s little room for lingering, grieving, or celebrating the life that was. Contrast this with other countries, where death is woven into the fabric of life.
Intercultural Communication as a Tenet of Care
In service at the end of life, at a time of great vulnerability and tenderness, a Death Doula exercises a deep awareness of cultural differences and the competency to adapt when needed. We can encounter differences in perception, values, communication styles, and norms.
What is a vigil plan?
When a person is dying they will experience a period of time when they are “actively dying”. This refers to the time when the person’s body begins to shut down and they have begun the process of transitioning into death. It is not uncommon for this to last for many hours, several days, and in some cases even longer. During this time the person is often in and out of consciousness or unresponsive. This is the opportunity for you and your family hold a vigil. A death doula can help this process go smoothly, from planning and for the duration of the vigil.