The Good Earth, LLC

10/12/2026

𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐃𝐀’𝐒 𝐒𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐅𝐀𝐑

Two University of Toronto psychiatrists who work with advanced-cancer patients, have counseled and assessed people for assisted death, and in one case administered the drugs, just published a warning in The New York Times. Drs. Gary Rodin and Madeline Li wrote that “𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘢’𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵.”

These are not outside critics. They say they support the procedure, yet they describe a system where “𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯” and where 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞.

The numbers they cite are staggering. Assisted death has grown 𝟏𝟔-𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 and now accounts for over 5 percent of all deaths in Canada. In 2024, 98 percent of people assessed were found to meet the “intolerable suffering” test, and over 92 percent were approved.

They also describe a law with almost no brakes. Patients on the main track can get the procedure “𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺,” there is 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭, and “𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.”

Their own explanation is damning: doctors have become focused on whether patients can qualify, “𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥.” The authors, per the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition’s summary of the op-ed, say a pause for counseling has led some patients to reconsider.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐚’𝐬 𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝. 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.

10/12/2026

HUMAN COMPOSTING: THE GREENWASHING CONVERSATION WE NEED TO HAVE.

Read this and weigh in if you're in composting, death care, or a potential client.

I keep seeing people declare that human composting is the best environmental option for our dead (based on what the see online or in marketing), but are we asking enough questions about what is IN or happens to the finished product?

Human composting, or Natural Organic Reduction (NOR), is marketed as an environmentally friendly alternative to burial and cremation. And compared to conventional burial involving embalming, metal caskets, and concrete vaults, it certainly has advantages, but that's an awfully convenient comparison when natural burial already exists.

Here's what concerns me most...

Human composting produces hundreds of pounds of soil like (mulch more like it) material per body, which can then be distributed to families, gardens, and conservation projects.

But what about the PFAS and microplastics already present in human bodies?

Where is the comprehensive testing for those contaminants BEFORE the finished material is spread across the landscape?

For example: Washington requires testing for certain pathogens, heavy metals, and physical contaminants. But PFAS (forever chemicals) and microplastics are NOT included in the required testing panel. those are two very different things.

Composting organic material doesn't automatically eliminate persistent synthetic chemicals or microscopic plastic particles. I've found estimates of approximately $2,000 per body for comprehensive testing of these contaminants, although actual laboratory costs depend on the testing methods. That raises another question: Who is paying to establish that the finished product is environmentally safe? Not the composting companies.

Not testing for something is not the same as proving it isn't there and as human composting facilities expand, what happens when increasingly large quantities of this material are introduced into forests, restoration sites, and other environments without comprehensive contaminant testing? It's 3 cubic YARDS! Fills a pickup bed. That's A LOT.

We should be investigating these questions BEFORE large ccale distribution, not decades afterward! And as someone who saw it happen behind the scenes, it was rushed to market in the most capitalistic way.

There are other issues worth discussing, too.

Industrial facilities require energy, transportation, manufactured equipment, and infrastructure, and producing compost isn't the same as protecting land.

Conservation burial can help permanently protect existing ecosystems while allowing natural decomposition without the need for an industrial processing facility.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't have access to human composting but an industry built around environmental responsibility should be held accountable for its environmental claims.

Greenwashing happens when marketing creates an impression of environmental benefit that goes beyond what the evidence actually establishes. Before we declare any disposition method the greenest option, we need independent research, transparent environmental comparisons, and meaningful contaminant testing.

The funeral industry has a long history of selling consumers things they don't necessarily need. We shouldn't allow the green death care movement to repeat that mistake with prettier marketing.

I'm not anti choice, far from it I'm pro transparency, pro science, and pro consumer education and that means asking uncomfortable questions, even when the answers might challenge something we've been told is good for the planet.

Plus, I recently learned that when you rehydrate this "soil" it has the smell of a rotting body.

10/12/2026

10/12/2026

10/11/2026

Southwest Captain Bryan Knight felt calm the whole way from Oakland. Then he turned his Boeing 737 into the gate at Dallas Love Field, and it hit him. In the cargo hold, in a flag-draped casket, were his father’s remains.

The last time Bryan had seen his father was at that same airport, in January 1967. He was 5. Air Force pilot Roy Knight Jr. was leaving for the Vietnam War, and to this day Bryan remembers his mother, Patricia, sobbing as he left.

On May 19, 1967, Roy was leading 2 A-1 Skyraiders on a strike mission over northern Laos when anti-aircraft fire brought his plane down. No one saw a parachute, and a search found no trace of him. He was listed as missing, and was promoted to colonel while his family waited. In 1974, the Air Force officially declared him lost.

His son grew up to fly, first in the Air Force and then for Southwest. Teams searched his father’s crash site for years without finding him. Then in 2019, they did, and scientists identified him through his teeth.

When Bryan learned his father was coming home to Dallas, he wrote to his chief pilot and asked to fly him there himself.

On August 8, 2019, Southwest Flight 1220 landed at Love Field. A gate agent announced who was aboard, and the terminal fell silent. Travelers watched from the windows as water cannons saluted the plane, dozens of Southwest employees came out to pay their respects, and an Air Force honor guard carried the colonel to his family.

Bryan said it was an honor he never would have imagined “in a million years.” 2 days later, his father was laid to rest in Texas.

10/11/2026

When our people die and go to the other side we put their bodies on a scaffold. Their relatives who still walk the earth, speak to them while on these scaffolds. Sometimes our relatives that are still here set up a tipi to stay in to spend extra time with them. Our dead usually stayed on the scaffold for 4 days before they were put in the ground with buffalo shoulder bone shovels. The Black Hills is our cemetery. Most of our dead are buried on the tops of these hills. Today there are houses and roads built directly over our dead. We consider the Black Hills sacred because it is where our ancestors are buried. That is why we continue to fight for their return. At one time the government was going to make it the Crazy Horse Agency but when they killed him, they reneged.

10/11/2026

10/11/2026

It comes from the heart as well as years of experience 

A question I was asked recently:

“Have you got approved psychological training to do this? A professional qualification?”

It was in response to a post I had shared about a patient and their family, and about how I supported them through a difficult moment.

It made me think.

I am a hospice and palliative care nurse and an end-of-life doula. I have nearly 15 years of experience working in healthcare. I have witnessed over two thousand last breaths, and twice that many goodbyes. I have education. I have professional experience.

And I know my scope of work.

There are things I am not qualified to do, and I know when something needs to be handed over to another professional. Knowing when to say, “This is beyond my scope, and this person needs someone with different expertise,” is an important part of providing good care.

But here’s something else I know:

Sometimes, the person in front of you doesn’t need someone with the “perfect”letters after their name on a badge.

Sometimes they need someone to sit beside them.

Someone to listen.
Someone who isn’t afraid of their tears.
Someone who can tolerate the silence.

Someone who can say, “I don’t know what to say, but I am here.”

Someone who understands that this moment matters.

Healthcare can sometimes make us believe that every meaningful interaction has to belong to a particular professional role or require a particular credential.

But we are human beings caring for human beings.

Our education matters.
Our training matters.
Our professional boundaries matter.

And so does our humanity.

I don’t ever want to be the person who steps outside my scope because I think I know everything.

But I also don’t want to be so afraid of stepping outside the neat little box of my job description that I forget how to simply show up for another human being.

Knowing when to hand it over is part of good care.

Knowing when to stay is too.

xo
Gabby

10/11/2026

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

- Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1986

A Poem: The Ways We Remember

There's a moment in our cruel history
One we all should stop to remember
The time when murderers killed the innocent
In 1944, that cold, dark December

When a psychopath took over a country
And then decided to take over the world
He ordered all the Jewish people of Hungary
To be murdered as Europe became unfurled

They were brought to the banks of the Danube
Where they were told to remove their shoes
It was there they were shot in cold blood
Their only crime was that they were Jews

More than 100,000 Jews from Budapest
Were killed because of their religious beliefs
All over the world, he killed millions more
Not until 1945 did the U.S. offer any relief

Today, there is a Holocaust memorial
On the banks of the Danube River
Sixty pairs of iron shoes were placed to honor
The spot where they were shot as they shiver

As our society, it's of the utmost importance
That we continue to tell their unhappy story
We can never again let a psychotic maniac
Murder innocent people for his own personal glory

© 2025 Jeffrey Pipes Guice
Photograph of ‘Shoes on the Danube Promenade' by Can Togay and Gyula Pauer.

Seen here are sixty pairs of iron shoes lining the banks of the Danube River, a memorial to the Jews of Budapest, Hungary, murdered during WWII. When the nationalist-socialist political party Arrow Cross took power in 1944, they aligned themselves with the Antisemitic stance of Hitler's N**i party. They began deporting thousands of Jews to concentration camps. Within days of them taking power, 600 Jews were murdered - with many rounded up and shot on the banks of the Danube. In total, over 100,000 Jews from Budapest perished during the Holocaust, a time when over 50% of the entire Jewish community was eradicated. The shoes are a quiet monument to those murdered simply because of their religion.