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Our Monthly Tip: Preparing for New Traditions
How to create new traditions when a loved one diesOur Tip of the Month Traditions are rituals or events that we typically share with those we love. Traditions serve to mark time and special events, and to connect us to one another. But what happens when a person you share those traditions with dies? You may find it difficult to uphold or participate in the “old”…
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Obituary Theft: What You Don’t Know Can Cost You
How to avoid robberies, scams and ghostingIt’s one of those stories that sounds too bad to be true: Criminals perusing the obituaries in order to rob or scam the relatives of the person who died. Unfortunately, true it is. Snopes.com gathered several examples of law-breakers who preyed on the loved ones of a deceased person. There are several types of obituary…
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What Are Death Cafés? (Interview)
An interview with Lizzy Miles, host of the first Death Cafe in the United States, Part OneToday SevenPonds speaks with Lizzy Miles. Lizzy works at a hospice center in Columbus, Ohio, and was the first person to host a Death Café in the United States in 2012. The Death Café movement was originally championed by Jon Underwood of the United Kingdom (who unfortunately died suddenly last summer) based on the idea originally…
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“If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow” by Cooper Edens
A classic picture book offers sage advice about dealing with life’s ups and downsThere are few books in print today that have garnered the levels of critical praise and popular enthusiasm as Cooper Eden’s 1979 classic “If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow.” Part whimsy and part practical advice, it is a fantastical treatise on the power of thinking “outside the box” while coping with…
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Music Therapy Can Help Make a Person’s Last Days More Peaceful
Music has healing powers that should not be overlookedI have always been interested in the benefits of music therapy. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Portia Diwa, who plays the harp for people who are ill, injured or dying. Portia said that one of her goals as a harpist is to help people feel better and to improve their…
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“Deportee”
A former Attorney General’s record project makes a statement about immigrationOver Memorial Day Weekend I chanced upon an eclectic album, Song of America, produced in 2007. There are other collections of Americana that attempt to tell the history of our country through music. But none of those are comprised of an array handpicked by a former U.S. Attorney General –Janet Reno — and a veteran Nashville indie-punk…
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The Growing Use of Medical Cannabis Among Seniors
For some, the Golden Years are becoming the Green YearsAs medical cannabis has become a widely accepted treatment for a variety of disorders, more and more patients from every demographic have discovered it is a safe, effective and inexpensive way to greatly improve quality of life. Add to this the growing public understanding of the dangers of prescription pain medicines brought on by the…
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“Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night”
Death of a son and comradeMemorial Day has its roots in the American Civil War. Both the North and South wanted to set aside days to honor their dead. After World War I, the country set aside a day to honor all Americans killed in war. Poetry was one way to memorialize dead soldiers. One poet who dealt with the…
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