Transitions and Decisions

04/18/2024

A pair of colleagues – a Black chaplain and a white Jewish physician – share the evolution of their relationship and offer a vision of what it means to provi...

01/28/2024

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

- Iain Thomas

12/26/2023

Give yourself the gift of a lifetime and learn more about death literacy.

The book discusses ways reform healthcare, educate consumers to advocate for better care around dying and explain how more care doesn’t equal better care.

12/06/2023

WINTER GRIEF

Let the rest
in this rested place
rest for you.

Let the birds sing quietly
and the geese call
from far off
and let the sky race
from west to east
when you cannot
lift a wing to fly.

Let evening trace
your loss in the branches
against a fading sky.

So that you can give up
and give in
and be given back to,

so that you can let
winter come and live
fully inside you,
so that you can
retrace the loving path
of heartbreak
that brought you here.

So you can cry alone
and be alone
so you can let yourself alone
to be lost,

so you can let the one
you have lost alone,
so that you can let
the one you have lost
have their own life
and even
their own death
without you.

So that the world
and everyone who has ever lived
and ever died can come and go
as they please.

So you can let yourself not know,
what not knowing means.

So that you can be
even more generous in your letting go
than they were in their leaving.

So that you can let winter
be winter.
So that you can let the world alone
to think of spring.

…

WINTER GRIEF
From THE BELL AND THE BLACKBIRD
Poetry by David Whyte
APRIL 2018 © David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
..

The grief of losing a loved one, the need to walk, to remember, to heal when you cannot heal, to remember what you do not wish to remember. The unconscious call for invisible help, and the not knowing consciously, how, in any way, to ask for it, the way everything refuses to console until we are ready for that consolation. The way winter turns to spring. DW
…

Bright Tree.
Photo © David Whyte.
Timble, Yorkshire.
December 3rd 2023

11/18/2023

Read Barbara's palliative care story about being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This is a story about finding a sense of control amidst an uncertain future.

11/17/2023

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and this year's theme is "Courageous Conversations." Talking about death and dying might not always be easy, but it is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your loved ones.

08/27/2023

08/05/2023

Reflect together with one of the UK and Europe’s finest, most beloved and admired writers, Julian Barnes, in conversation with Claire Armitstead.