There are some animals that don’t show signs of aging … these animals don’t have a decline in functionality nor do they lack virility. This characteristic is called “negligible senescence (or negligible aging)” and is seen in the Rougheye rockfish (which can live up to 205 years), the Ocean Quahog clam (405 years), the Aldabra Giant […]
In the Western world, death is one of the last taboos. Death has become so sterile … so unspeakable … so frightful … so improper … that we assume we MUST protect the innocent souls from it’s darkness. In many parental minds, those “innocent souls” who need the most protection are our children. Death, though, isn’t something that we […]
Answer these questions with a “yes” or “no”. If you answer all “yes”, you are 100% funeral taboo … in other words, you’re willing to try funeralization practices that aren’t generally accepted by society. With each “no” your taboo goes down 10%. (NOTE: these questions assume a disposition of burial) 1. Do you want to […]
Grief shared is grief diminished. When an individual dies, that death throws a web of relationships out of balance, causing the mourners to learn how to live in the new normal. That new normal is best found together in community. When grief isn’t shared. When there is no community to share it. When it isn’t […]
The problem is that you, the grieving person, don’t know what you need and your loved ones don’t know how to help. This disparity often leads to a lot of conflict and unmet expectations, on both sides. Throughout our experiences with my cancer and our child-loss, we have experienced a lot of unmet expectations and […]