Death's Apprentice

Our home is on fire.

We need each other more than ever.

if you’re a wildfire evacuee, you’ve just had a horrifying lesson in the importance of planning ahead. And if you’re a wildfire fighter, you’re a freaking hero.

As this post says: I guide people through holistic advance care planning. I also teach courses for emerging end-of-life doulas.

This has been my vocation for close to a decade now, since I left private higher education to become a funeral director and an end-of-life doula.

I teach in small classes. There’s no Ai-content. We are live online together, learning with and from each other in an organized and connected way. Every person is held and guided with love and compassion, for as long as they need that guidance. We make friends in my classes. We make community.

I’ll never get rich doing this, and that’s not my goal, anyway.

My goal is to be of service. My goal is to help everyone be more ready to deal with all aspects of life, even the end of it.

I don’t have all that much to give, but I can give this. If you’re a wildfire evacuee, or if you’re a wildfire fighter, you’re welcome to take a course with me, on me.

I know September might be too rushed. But if it isn’t, come. And if it is, we’ll figure it out together.

Thank you, firefighters. And to those who have had everything turn upside down literally overnight: you are so loved.

🩷

Comment ASHY to register! (More ⤵️)

I’ve always been fascinated by the rocks made out of cremated remains from Parting Stone .

Have you seen these things?

Each stone is hand-formed. They can sometimes come out in startlingly beautiful colours, too, like the blue you see here.

Turning “ashes” into stones is really damn cool.

There’s tons of other things you can do too though, and I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about dealing with cremated remains.

Join me live tomorrow, Wednesday August 5th at 5 pm PST. YES...i’ll send out a recording to everyone who registers (along with a workbook too).

I’m so lucky to live in a place that has so many options for natural burial.

I’ll tell you what though…this one is my favourite.

Every time I visit this sacred death space, I learn something about life.

I’m working on a cool little project for folks who are interested in green burial, so be sure to stick around.

Meanwhile, if you have questions…ask me anything!

Is cremation actually a “simpler” choice? (Comment ASHY if you want in!)

It’s only simpler if you have a plan for the cremated remains (and trust me, leaving ashes for someone else to deal with doesn’t count as a plan at all!)

After cremation, you’ll receive a paper or plastic box that’s about 6 inches wide, 8 inches tall, and 8 inches deep, and it’s going to be FULL of what we commonly call “ashes”.

It could weigh 10 lbs or even more!

It’s honestly so much more volume than you’re probably going to expect.

SO many people don’t have a clue what to do with cremated remains. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but 9/10 of them are to do with our general discomfort with talking about death.

Let’s do something about that, together!

Join me on zoom, August 5th for a free live session at 5 pm Pacific time.

We’ll get ALL your burning questions about cremation (and what to do with the ashes leftover) answered, I promise!

This is a free event, and you won’t be suffering through a sales pitch. It’s simply free accessible death education, something I’m deeply committed to.

I hope I’ll see you there…but don’t worry, I’ll record it too and send that out to everyone who signs up.

Comment ASHY and I’ll send you a link to register right away. (Actually, the magic robots will do that for me…but if you reply to the DM, you’ll be talking directly to ME!)

Someone please explain what “certification” actually means in an unlicensed, unregulated field?

And for the record: I am a dual-licensed Deathcaring professional, and I have a graduate degree in education with a specialty in adult and higher education. I don’t think either of those things necessarily ensures quality and I don’t think their absence would necessarily indicate a lack of quality.

What I absolutely DO think is that the obvious and omnipresent use of Ai in doula curriculum design and the concurrent marketing slop that goes alongside it has no place in doula education OR practice.

What about you? What do you think about Ai I’m death education spaces? And while we’re at it, what’s your take on “certification”?