Dear Friends,

So many currently are heavy-hearted as we collectively wake each day to the state of the world.

If you are one of those who is, day after day, perhaps year after year, standing up for the rights of others; if your inner work entails the tough outer work of intending and working for kindness in an action-based way; if taking steps towards intentionally and genuinely lifting up the well-being of others is part of your daily practice. . .  If you do this from an authentic, humble KINDNESS, not because you seek revenge, but because your gentle, pulsing, living humanity urges you to do so,

Thank you.
Please remember to breathe now and then; it is big work.

PS: If anyone knows the origin or creator of these memes, please contact me and I will share!!!

Here is our little add in the Bangor Daily News;

https://classifieds.bangordailynews.com/me-bangor/announcements/memento-mori-open-honest-conversations-on-death-dying/2e26113ab28847c0ae2a6abfdd5b

Hope to see you there!!

Hello Dear Friends!

Next week we begin the Memento Mori; Open, Honest Conversations on Death & Dying,
In-person, at both Bucksport and Castine, (Maine) libraries! 
(On-line MMConversations begin in February.)

Find us on Facebook:  Memento Mori; Open, Honest Conversations About Death & Dying
Visit us on Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/heartfullivinganddying/


For those who do not follow on Facebook or Instagram - -
This blog post will share some of our recent, visual, mini-posts that have appeared on one or both of the social media sites.  While you will not get the background music expereinced when visiting Instagram, nor the group dialogue found on the facebook group page, you can see the bits of art and feel into the questions, ideas and sentiments posed. 

Here you go:

This marks the second time I am sharing these two poems.

I occasionally re-post something when it's relevance re-emerges.  I think it is time for these two.  Many of the people I see in my office in one-on-one sessions, many of my friends and family, many of my own thoughts have expressed or been about this (I think fairly common right now) sense that we may crumble under the weight of the world's (or our own) pain.  Read the poem and see if it has resonance for you.  And even as it meet's us in the darkest places, might it also offer a speck or spark of POSSIBILITY? 

And an other question:
We do know that for many people - perhaps even most - a sense of being met, of being companioned when the going gets rough - offers some solace. But what of those of you/us who are by nature or in essence "loners"?  Those for whom solitude is our comfort -- Does the end of the poem work for you as it might for others?

And another poem, re-shared, might be more familiar; it is David Whyte's THE OPENING OF EYES. 

Visit the poet's beautiful website and support his work here:  https://davidwhyte.com/

Perhaps this one speaks more to the ones of you who are not soothed by a sense of being-with, but prefer a more solitary comforting. . .