Death is an invitation to life
I am here to dance, wrestle, lament, celebrate and commune with life. It was death that lead me here. Death is an invitation to Life. It brings us into immediate and rich relationship with our heart and with living. There has been much that has been forgotten in our turn away from death, but we are remembering, reclaiming and returning to be with our dead and in turn, ourselves.
Death is always walking with us, whether we acknowledge this or not, and occurs not only in the literal. Death meets us at every threshold, rite of passage and transformational shedding; that is the course of being human. If we can open, to continuously meet death throughout the course of life, then when we meet our own or a loved one’s final death, we will be better equipped to meet this expansive presence, which can offer us insight and incredible gifts.
My work dances with death; all of her many faces and ways. There are many people doing great work in this space. I offer my lived experience, curiosity, passion and skills through my particular, individual bardic lens, through ceremony, the word, presence and attendance. It is a privilege to be here.
My work is to support the dying person, their family and community in meeting and crossing the threshold of death. This can include conversation and consultation, sitting vigil, end of life and after death care, alongside facilitating ritual and ceremony with a funeral or memorial, to acknowledge the person’s death and to celebrate their life. I work in a way that enables people to have agency at the end of their life and supports family-led care, with a secular honouring of the sacred. To get in touch regarding the services I offer please head to the converse page.
Meeting Death
It is every individual human’s right to have choice at the end of life and to meet death in a way that resonates for them. I support individuals and their families to know what your options are and to make choices from an informed and empowered place.
I walk alongside the dying and their families, offering support, ritual and ceremony to facilitate dying and grieving with care, beauty and artistry.
The moment of death and time immediately after is incredibly precious and a powerful space for all present.
Caring for the dead can be facilitated within your own home and/or community, with rituals such as washing and dressing the body that offer healing and grounding for those caring for their dead. This is often a family-led process that can be supported as needed.
Ceremony and Ritual
Ceremony is a sacred container that holds us as we meet various thresholds in life and supports us in moving through rites of passage.
In death, ceremony and ritual offers us a shared way to gather, to acknowledge the death that has occurred and to celebrate the life lived. Ritual is transformative, it enables the grieving process and offers healing and connection.
Ceremony and ritual is innate to being human, it is a living thing and shifts and grows with us. My work is to facilitate and support families in the creation of ceremony; this can include a living wake, funeral, memorial or life celebration. My ceremonies are as individual and unique as the families I work with.
Finally, while many struggle to find words at the meeting of death, language is incredibly powerful, and when done well can assist us to be with our grief and to speak the poetry of a person’s life.