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“A Moveable Feast”
We revisit Hemingway’s classic memoir to consider how the deaths of WWI hovered over Paris’s “roaring” yearsI’d never meditated on “A Moveable Feast“’s relationship with death. Sure, I’d thought of Ernest Hemingway’s classic as a book about the obvious: hunger and gratitude, honesty and unrelenting love. F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were champions of the latter themes, given their tumultuous relationship in the book. The two were so in love, and…
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Elephant Mourning Rituals
Decades of research and observation show elephants experience sorrow and griefElephants are one of the most intelligent of all animals. Their brains contain over 300 billion neurons as well as a highly developed cerebral cortex that is similar in complexity to that of humans and larger than that of almost all other primates except the great apes. In the wild, they form complex social groups;…
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Can You Donate Unused Hospice Drugs?
Hospitals in California advocate for donor programsWhen my grandmother was receiving hospice care after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, we had boxes and boxes of unopened medications piled knee-high in a closet. After she died, we asked her nurse what we could do with the medications. Could we send them back to the hospital so that other patients could use them?…
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Finding Peace When a Loved One Is Dying
The suffering of those left behind is very real, but there is comfort to be found in witnessing a good deathThe family stood around the bedside, wringing their hands, tearfully affirming that the suffering of their loved one needed to end soon. They were witnessing the final hours of the 84-year-old gentleman, who was a respected father of four, successful businessman and community volunteer. As his physical abilities declined daily over the past 2 weeks,…
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Monday Hearts for Madalene
Page Hodel creates the most beautiful hearts in an ongoing celebration of loveI-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-O-H-S-O-M-U-C-H ! It’s an honor for SevenPonds to share with our readers the story of the Monday Hearts for Madalene project, a true account of the power of love in the midst of death. The project’s origins take us to 2005: the moment Page Hodel encountered Madalene Rodriguez and fell “instantly, dizzyingly in love with her.” The couple’s first…
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Digitized Memorial Reflects Impermanence of Life
“Family Tree” from Lithuanian designers subjects at-home cremains to tech failureLithuanian designers Loucas Papantoniou and Asta Sadauskaite have developed the “Family Tree” — a sleek, modern, beehive-style wall mounted structure designed to keep family cremains in a single unified place within the home, complete with backlit LED memorial message screens programmable from your smartphone. The designers propose that “Family Tree” is a good way for family…
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How Can Health Advocates Help with End-of-Life Planning? (Interview)
A health advocate discusses how she gives her clients peace of mindDr. Linden works as the president of Tree of Life Health Advocates from her office in San Francisco. Her organization serves clients in the Bay Area, Monterey County and other areas of the country via phone or video chat. Learn more about her organization and how they can help you or a loved one by…
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Our Weekly Tip: Turn Your Grief Into a Gratitude Meditation
Use this simple process to turn painful thoughts into evolutionary toolsOur Tip of the Week: Grief and loss are deeply intertwined. Why would we grieve anyone if we felt that there was no loss? It can be useful to notice, then, what has been lost. The first thing that may come to mind is the body — the physical expression of the person you love,…
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