In this episode Sascha and I look at vigils, vigilance and hyper-vigilance. We consider how each state shows up in our lives and how they interact with each other. We offer personal stories and learn a little more about each other.

In this episode Sascha and I throw structure to the wind and invite you into friendship chatting about vigilance and loss.

We discuss: outrage at day spas, prairie dogs, non-aquatic anemones, aikido and how it feels when we open the door to our pain and fear, and try to move and roll with it.

Maybe this structure demonstrates one of the antidotes for hyper-vigilance: what comes when we feel deeply safe and therefore free to follow each other down whichever paths open up as far as they allow, then turn off or circle back and end up somewhere, though nowhere we intended.

In the end we both like what we've found along the path and how our feet and hearts feel from the wandering. We hope you'll come along and maybe see sometime worth picking up along the way.

In this episode Laura and I talk about feelings and forts. We talk about actual forts we constructed in childhood and what they meant to us and how we felt inside. We also talk about what it is to create safe spaces, our own worlds, and even our own realities in which to live.

Sascha talks with Kate Drummond of The Energetic Heart (https://www.theenergeticheart.com) and About Play (https://aboutplaytherapy.com) in Atlanta to learn more about her journey and awakening and to talk about reality as it relates to regulation.

We discuss how emotional regulation does not equal submission, doesn't mean we're in a non feeling place and doesn't require us to forfeit our anger.

What we find in a regulated place are deep feelings and the ability to respond rather than react to stimuli. We talk about where to start when you live in a world that is chronically disregulated and reflect on how salient and helpful it feels to do this work in good company, given the degree to which we are bombarded with stimuli today.

You can join both Sascha & Kate at their upcoming offering Finding Ease in Times of Struggle (offering release and regulation support) in Atlanta beginning April 14th.

In this episode of the podcast Sascha and I discuss the nature of reality.

We consider the practical appeal of living inside a consensus reality, the value of remembering that real doesn't mean absolute and what it's like when truth we've relied on cracks apart to reveal who-knows-what swirling underneath.

We look at examples from our lives of ways grief offered glimpses into layers of reality we weren't expecting, like and don't like the way that makes us feel and wonder at what kind of shimmering endlessness we might be swimming in.

We are thrilled to share our first community stories episode.

We look forward to weaving and sharing the experiences of our grief house community members.

Our theme this month is perspective and reality - the conversations on this episode explore how grief can change our experience of the world around us.

Today’s stories are shared by Jamie, Alex, Edith and Morgan. They were recorded at the Portland Grief House during our Art & Medicine fair and at a Compassionate Death Companion gathering.

We hope to offer one community episode each month. We'll be sending out information about upcoming themes, in-person recording dates in Portland and Atlanta and ways folks in other places can send us their stories.

Check out our Patreon page for more stories, writing and meditation prompts and other offerings.

Find out more about the folks on this episode below:

Jamie Thrower - End of Life Doula and Educator.

Alexandrea Wilson - counselor, death worker, Grief House board member.

Edith - griever

Morgan Fava - Death Doula

In this special episode I talk with Serena Trexler about her experiences as a death care worker, death rights advocate and green death/human composting engineer.

We Discuss Serena's personal relationship with the dead and their bodies (curious, honored to know them, not afraid) in contrast to many people's relationship with the dead (closed off, hopeful they won't be near, quite afraid). We explore the possibilities that open up when there isn't a requirement for fear of death and what might change if we had communities that supported us as we explored this universal, unavoidable part of our cycle. We discuss the biology of returning to the earth and the ways human's bodies might be used to heal wounds we've cause in our ecosystem.

I feel amazement about Serena, incredible good luck to know her, and hope about what might come from this particular moment she's spending incarnate.

In this episode Sascha and I talk about webs.

We ponder the way they are spun from hunger and instinct. How hope weaves a web, how death works in the weaving. We consider the web from a spider's perspective - how they never see the full scope of their work. We wonder about how we might weave well, where we are. We talk about our mothers and our fathers - the webs they wove for us, the nourishment they offered. We talk about the web from the perspective of the fly.

We end with a story about the ways we might weave webs that bring food for each other, without ever knowing and gratitude for the ones who have woven us into this strange, sparkling strength we're a part of today.