So beautiful, Julie! Your poem is breathtaking. And I love how much we continue to be on the same page! I'm literally writing a series on this exact topic (intertwining the ancestors, of course 😁). In one of my first visits with Death, she appeared to me as a sort of cruise director (clip board and all) bringing with her the calm knowing that all would be taken care of for me on "the other side". There was such relief in the idea that I won't need any kind of plan once I'm there. ❤️❤️❤️
I love that Jenna, "I won't need any kind of plan once I'm there." Eases the fear one can have of leaving the physical realm. And also why I am glad Death is a companion here on the plane too! Amazing to see with and through the eyes of Death. Awful and sad when seeing the whole phobia and dysfunction around dying. Beautiful when seeing the grace and love that is Death's heart! 🖤
You did a fantastic job of calling out CHIP again here, Julie. Our death-denying and ageist culture is the cause of so much suffering. It's so true that we aren't prolonging life, but prolonging the dying process. Both my parents died at 91 in 2021; it was a long, torturous goodbye that involved watching both of them deteriorate and unspool at an excruciatingly slow pace in a facility where there was little quality of life.
This past fall, I took a 6-week writing workshop called "Writing about Death" - probably the best writing workshop I've ever taken (it made me immeasurably happy to write about death...so it's not surprising I love that Dark Goddess deck so much ; ) ). It was such a gift to deep dive with others on the subject. I'm with you - palliative treatment only, please.
WOW that workshop sounds amazing. Right up my alley! Glad you enjoyed it so! It feels like meeting death and getting comfortable with it, makes it easier to be with darkness in general. Darkness and death as natural movements of life. Weird how our culture tries so desperately to control both. Where I live there is a lot of light pollution, I miss seeing the fullness of the stars! Probably why I spent years in the Darkness of Her. Difficult time, but full of deep truth and magical mystical insights and revelations. The light goddess can be so patronized into positivity and it's all good. I needed my time in the darkness to balance out CHIP's white washing. 🖤
Excellent post, Julie. It dovetails nicely with my learned experience and my Note from today. Thanks for sharing your wisdom as it certainly bucks current trends that need to change.
Thanks for reading Colleen. With the experiences we both had with our moms final years, mine really changed the way I see death. Again my heart goes out to you around what you went through. ❤️❤️❤️
WOW! wow! WOW! Firstly your poem...that is so beautiful. So powerful. I feel stilled by it and also initiated by it.
As you know I have a lovely relationship with Death and I feel that Death is my friend and ally. Your post welcomes that even more. It also reminds me that I am never alone...Death doesn't make us alone, it makes us more whole and free.
To meet Death while Living...To befriend Death in the day to day...To invite Death as an ally, as a friend. Your post is inviting that which is our normal state and befriending that which society has hidden and taken away from us. Thank you Wise Lady. x
Thanks Sam! I appreciate your words so much! And I agree with you, "Death doesn't make us alone, it makes us more whole and free." I feel such an incredible freedom walking with death, so I walk with death. And I am so saddened by the way death, the inevitable, is hidden away in our current culture! Such a disservice. And unfortunately a means of control too. Well all I can do is walk my path, walk my way, walk the liminal. Glad you are there with me along this journey. Bless you Sam! 🖤
Thank you for this Julie. I grew up in a catastrophizing household, where we were always frightened because something terrible was always about to happen, we were always about to die. So death became the enemy. Add culture and evangelical religion to this, and you have a potent mix. At this point, I just try to be with my fear of death, just accept it, don't try to fix it or make it go away. I'm hopeful that this continuing to be with will help me grow my relationship with death in helpful ways.
I believe it will. What I have seen and it is true for me, is that it is rarely a quick turn around. It starts with the willingness to just be with what is here. To be with the fear. Even if that means the only thing one can do is put their big toe in its waters. So, your openness to be with your fear of death is huge. To see it, to know how it effects you. to know that history. Many don't even get to that point. That's an incredibly huge step towards building a relationship. Thank you Emily for doing that! When you do that work, and since we are all interconnected, you do this also on behalf of our world. 🖤
Thanks for this Julie. Being open and accepting what is has worked for ever other difficult thing in my life. It’s the most effective tool I have. I appreciate your encouragement!
I too don’t fear death. I have felt it always near me just bearing witness to how I choose to spend the life I have been granted for the short time I have. For me we are shooting stars -momentary flares of brilliant light streaking across the dark void of the beyond. How bright we shine while here is entirely up to us. Thank you for writing about such a difficult topic and doing so in a way that asks for further contemplation. ❤️
I deeply appreciate your words, thank you. And I agree, by meeting death it opens the way to a greater freedom to be who and what we are ("shooting stars"). And expanding our capacity to receive and give more love. 🖤
I enjoyed reading this, Julie. I don't fear death because the architecture of the universe --as we know it-- leads me to believe there is a design and a designer who is omnipresent and eternal, and we are an inseparable part of it.
Beautiful piece. To add to the conversation I feel Christianity has also added to the need to prolong life. I can’t put my finger on it because it confuses me so, but the beliefs (my point of view) in Christianity are that you are here to live a life worthy of going to heaven. A life lived right enters the pearly gates. Yet, they attempt to not allow others to die. They are sacred of death. Forcing those or themselves that need the release of death to stay on life support or be managed by pills. What confuses me is that if they’ve lived the life as their god requested why are they so sacred to meet him in death?
Oh, I love your contemplation and your question! I find Christianity has many contradictions. And I agree Christianity adds to this dysfunction we have around dying. I don't have an answer here but as I contemplate, I know there is a Chrisian belief about honoring the life one has been given. So, part of that could be the prolonging of it. Not ending it unnecessarily while also doing all one can to honor this life. In Catholicism, suicide is a terrible sin. I have personally witnessed how the church treats the deaths of those that have done so. In this case choosing not to take prescribed medicine or treatments that could save one’s life could be seen as a type of suicide.
As I contemplate further, for centuries, many Christian church leaders have twisted scriptures to control people. Shaming them for acting in certain ways. I wonder if these people at their death beds feel worthy of God, thus prolonging their life because they are afraid of hell.
Anyways, I could go on. But thanks for the contemplation, really a good question. 🖤
So beautiful, Julie! Your poem is breathtaking. And I love how much we continue to be on the same page! I'm literally writing a series on this exact topic (intertwining the ancestors, of course 😁). In one of my first visits with Death, she appeared to me as a sort of cruise director (clip board and all) bringing with her the calm knowing that all would be taken care of for me on "the other side". There was such relief in the idea that I won't need any kind of plan once I'm there. ❤️❤️❤️
I love that Jenna, "I won't need any kind of plan once I'm there." Eases the fear one can have of leaving the physical realm. And also why I am glad Death is a companion here on the plane too! Amazing to see with and through the eyes of Death. Awful and sad when seeing the whole phobia and dysfunction around dying. Beautiful when seeing the grace and love that is Death's heart! 🖤
You did a fantastic job of calling out CHIP again here, Julie. Our death-denying and ageist culture is the cause of so much suffering. It's so true that we aren't prolonging life, but prolonging the dying process. Both my parents died at 91 in 2021; it was a long, torturous goodbye that involved watching both of them deteriorate and unspool at an excruciatingly slow pace in a facility where there was little quality of life.
This past fall, I took a 6-week writing workshop called "Writing about Death" - probably the best writing workshop I've ever taken (it made me immeasurably happy to write about death...so it's not surprising I love that Dark Goddess deck so much ; ) ). It was such a gift to deep dive with others on the subject. I'm with you - palliative treatment only, please.
WOW that workshop sounds amazing. Right up my alley! Glad you enjoyed it so! It feels like meeting death and getting comfortable with it, makes it easier to be with darkness in general. Darkness and death as natural movements of life. Weird how our culture tries so desperately to control both. Where I live there is a lot of light pollution, I miss seeing the fullness of the stars! Probably why I spent years in the Darkness of Her. Difficult time, but full of deep truth and magical mystical insights and revelations. The light goddess can be so patronized into positivity and it's all good. I needed my time in the darkness to balance out CHIP's white washing. 🖤
Beautiful as always, my dear friend.
Thanks Erica! Appreciate your words and presence! 💜🖤💜
Excellent post, Julie. It dovetails nicely with my learned experience and my Note from today. Thanks for sharing your wisdom as it certainly bucks current trends that need to change.
Thanks for reading Colleen. With the experiences we both had with our moms final years, mine really changed the way I see death. Again my heart goes out to you around what you went through. ❤️❤️❤️
WOW! wow! WOW! Firstly your poem...that is so beautiful. So powerful. I feel stilled by it and also initiated by it.
As you know I have a lovely relationship with Death and I feel that Death is my friend and ally. Your post welcomes that even more. It also reminds me that I am never alone...Death doesn't make us alone, it makes us more whole and free.
To meet Death while Living...To befriend Death in the day to day...To invite Death as an ally, as a friend. Your post is inviting that which is our normal state and befriending that which society has hidden and taken away from us. Thank you Wise Lady. x
Thanks Sam! I appreciate your words so much! And I agree with you, "Death doesn't make us alone, it makes us more whole and free." I feel such an incredible freedom walking with death, so I walk with death. And I am so saddened by the way death, the inevitable, is hidden away in our current culture! Such a disservice. And unfortunately a means of control too. Well all I can do is walk my path, walk my way, walk the liminal. Glad you are there with me along this journey. Bless you Sam! 🖤
Thank you for this Julie. I grew up in a catastrophizing household, where we were always frightened because something terrible was always about to happen, we were always about to die. So death became the enemy. Add culture and evangelical religion to this, and you have a potent mix. At this point, I just try to be with my fear of death, just accept it, don't try to fix it or make it go away. I'm hopeful that this continuing to be with will help me grow my relationship with death in helpful ways.
I believe it will. What I have seen and it is true for me, is that it is rarely a quick turn around. It starts with the willingness to just be with what is here. To be with the fear. Even if that means the only thing one can do is put their big toe in its waters. So, your openness to be with your fear of death is huge. To see it, to know how it effects you. to know that history. Many don't even get to that point. That's an incredibly huge step towards building a relationship. Thank you Emily for doing that! When you do that work, and since we are all interconnected, you do this also on behalf of our world. 🖤
Thanks for this Julie. Being open and accepting what is has worked for ever other difficult thing in my life. It’s the most effective tool I have. I appreciate your encouragement!
I too don’t fear death. I have felt it always near me just bearing witness to how I choose to spend the life I have been granted for the short time I have. For me we are shooting stars -momentary flares of brilliant light streaking across the dark void of the beyond. How bright we shine while here is entirely up to us. Thank you for writing about such a difficult topic and doing so in a way that asks for further contemplation. ❤️
I deeply appreciate your words, thank you. And I agree, by meeting death it opens the way to a greater freedom to be who and what we are ("shooting stars"). And expanding our capacity to receive and give more love. 🖤
I enjoyed reading this, Julie. I don't fear death because the architecture of the universe --as we know it-- leads me to believe there is a design and a designer who is omnipresent and eternal, and we are an inseparable part of it.
YES!!! We are born from it, we live as it and to it we return. Thank you! 🖤
Beautiful piece. To add to the conversation I feel Christianity has also added to the need to prolong life. I can’t put my finger on it because it confuses me so, but the beliefs (my point of view) in Christianity are that you are here to live a life worthy of going to heaven. A life lived right enters the pearly gates. Yet, they attempt to not allow others to die. They are sacred of death. Forcing those or themselves that need the release of death to stay on life support or be managed by pills. What confuses me is that if they’ve lived the life as their god requested why are they so sacred to meet him in death?
Oh, I love your contemplation and your question! I find Christianity has many contradictions. And I agree Christianity adds to this dysfunction we have around dying. I don't have an answer here but as I contemplate, I know there is a Chrisian belief about honoring the life one has been given. So, part of that could be the prolonging of it. Not ending it unnecessarily while also doing all one can to honor this life. In Catholicism, suicide is a terrible sin. I have personally witnessed how the church treats the deaths of those that have done so. In this case choosing not to take prescribed medicine or treatments that could save one’s life could be seen as a type of suicide.
As I contemplate further, for centuries, many Christian church leaders have twisted scriptures to control people. Shaming them for acting in certain ways. I wonder if these people at their death beds feel worthy of God, thus prolonging their life because they are afraid of hell.
Anyways, I could go on. But thanks for the contemplation, really a good question. 🖤
Beautiful, powerful writing 💜🖤 I especially love the section on Death Phobia.
Thanks Alysia! It truly felt like a transmission, I was transcribing. 🖤💜🖤