Kia ora whanau/greetings family & community—
Hoping this finds you and yours well and at peace.
Today I’ll be sharing a brief update while introducing you to this new format.
Here’s why our format has changed:
The previous newsletter platform was difficult to navigate and being an admin team of one, I just did not have the ability to use it easily or regularly. There is a welcomed ease to sharing through substack.
This substack platform holds the podcast as well. Therefore, this becomes a one-stop platform where you can find updates and all of the podcast episodes in one place. You can easily locate any of our 100+ episodes right here on this site. The address is to our main substack website is deathdialoguesproject.substack.com
People have repeatedly encouraged us to fundraise in a variety of ways to support this project, something that never resonated. There was hope that sales of the book “Death and its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Beautiful Lessons: field notes from The Death Dialogues Project,” would fund the project but with the financial outlay for the book, that might not have been realistic. For those who support this work and would like to help offset costs for keeping this mission rolling, you can support our work through this platform.
I’ll be getting more comfortable with this format as we go and unlocking more of how it works.
Personal news …
Today I am writing from Springfield, Illinois, USA. Right now I’m 77 days into this 93 day journey of physical reconnection with family since well before the pandemic.
I’ve met one new grandchild and have one more to meet this week. There has been meaningful connection with family and friends who had the time and capacity to meet. This has certainly been a full spectrum experience. Dropping into others’ space for three months lends itself to not just the pleasantry of visits but the real life happenings as well.
I sat at the bedside and embraced my dear friend who died the next day. Other dear friends who have supported me greatly on this journey have had two intimate deaths in the last two weeks. Loved ones have received major health diagnosis. There has been emotional upheaval, the resurfacing of grief, and intense and loving reconnection and supporting each other. A golden thread of love has sewn all of these experiences together.
Down time has been a stranger and the intensity of these travels has required a practice of staying in the moment. Literally focusing on one day at a time living. I’ve been to Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois again, New York State, and currently Illinois again. Soon I’ll be heading to Raleigh and Asheville, North Carolina and will then head to LA and Joshua Tree before I fly out of LA back to Auckland. The countdown has long ago started for returning home— 17 days from now. I miss my whanau in New Zealand dearly.
Later, I hope to share more of the lessons and some of the magic and beautiful-horrible of this journey.
Project news …
I want to send a huge thank you to Kate Burns who last year volunteered to assist with the project and has been serving as co-host of the podcast. You will hear her on the latest episodes. It’s been all I could do to get a few episodes up since I’ve been gone so I’m very appreciative of her effort. She believes deeply in this work that she was personally introduced to when she appeared on the podcast; you can go to the main page here and find her personal story at episode number 93.
Instagram remains where our main social media presence lives and you can find that here. You can find us on Facebook here.
While on these travels it has come to my attention just how much bandwidth maintaining this project has taken from my living— my life, my family … Many of you know that my husband had a severe heart attack last December which has realigned my priorities and desire to put action behind living like we might die tomorrow. Moving forward, I vow to focus on our living in our day to day lives. So rather than daily social media posting, this may be the place for my irregularly regular downloads.
Please bookmark HERE and if you don’t listen to our podcast elsewhere, check back here for for new episodes. Check out our latest podcasts that you have not heard there now.
I continue to receive regular feedback about how impactful our book “Death and its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Beautiful Lessons: field notes from The Death Dialogues Project” has been for for people. Detailed, moving, and with so many folks having found the book has landed at just the right time for them. Many report that it’s filled in the gap in the circle that had been missing from either their fear, understanding, curiosity, or experiences surrounding death. The book is being used regularly as a gift for others as a resource and during those times there are no words.
You can find links for alternative places to find the book, press and more HERE.
Until next time …