Do Not Let Your Astonishment Go Extinct
Celebrating This Precious Life
Do you live as though you're going to die?
I don't mean jumping off mountains or bridges or risking your life with adrenaline-seeking adventures, although that can definitely highlight the fact! I mean do you stop and wonder, as I found myself doing the other day, at the marvel of being able to make my own bread, slice it up, and put it in a bag in a freezer to eat over time? Do you stop and wonder at the incredible workings of your body, that your heart pumps approximately 100,000 times per day, and then one day it won't? Do you stop to really take in your partner, or your boss, or the people you spend your days and a life and maybe a home with, and wonder - who on earth are you, really?
I know that most days, I don't.
All too easily each day can become just about getting through the day. Going through the motions, seeking pleasure, trying to avoid pain, and becoming numb to our actual life and experience. We often forget that the existence of even the most seemingly ordinary things can be imbued with wonder - As Carl Sagan famously said, It takes a universe to make an apple pie.
No doubt, this life can be difficult. The First Noble Truth is the Truth of Suffering, of change, of impermanence, of unsatisfactoriness. But this life is what we have. Do we want to close down around it, building walls and towers of protection, or risk opening our soft bellies and hearts to the wonder and beauty of it? We all know what we most deeply want, and we also know that it's hard. So we need ways - places, people and experiences - that remind us what's really important and that keep us alive (really alive!) before we die.
I've recently discovered the spoken word poetry of Andrea Gibson, Colorado's poet laureate. She is living with a terminal cancer diagnosis and her poems are so magnificent, so powerfully and humanly truthful, she manages to pack a punch and a bunch of delicate flowers at the same time. It was her poem that made me stop and notice the wonder of the bread bag!
Human awe is an endangered species.
Do not let your astonishment go extinct.
Go wild for the wildness of your being.
Sing off key and call it a yet-to-be-invented note.
Why are you acting like a birdcage caught your heart?
No matter what hurts, love yourself enough to never think your ribcage is locked.
Just because your life isn’t a piece of cake doesn’t mean it can’t be sweet.
Andrea's poems are a reminder to me to never stop paying attention, for the little things are not little, and never stop celebrating, sharing and expressing that which my heart most wants and needs to share. If you haven't checked her out yet, please do! You can watch or listen to Andrea read "The Birds Wrote Me A Poem" on Instagram here or on her blog here
Do we need to have a terminal illness to start noticing life? Do we need to lose something we love to truly appreciate it? How do we wake up to this wonder of living, every single day? How do we celebrate this one and only precious life?
If these questions are alive in you, then you are wholeheartedly invited to join Wendy Haynes and myself for our next 6-month online program Celebrating This Precious Life - honest conversations on death and dying. Our first monthly session together begins on Friday March 22nd - yep that's this coming Friday!
This gentle yet powerful course is a space to explore our practical, philosophical, spiritual, and everything-in-between questions about death and dying. It's about making the time to really explore and discover for ourselves our genuine views, feelings, and relationship to death and dying, and what is truly important to us. It's a chance to look deeper, lean in, clear out, let go, and embrace life while we still live it. And it's about connecting! To ourselves and each other, to the personal and the universal.
You will be gaining practical tools and knowledge, as well as developing valuable skills and inner resources to be a true ally to yourself, your loved ones, and your community.
Woven throughout the course is developing our skills of deep listening, presence, self-compassion and empathy, so that you can be with yourself in challenging moments, and also be a genuine support for others. The lives, stories, and experience of all participants are full of wisdom gems that we harvest in every session.
If you are a health professional, if you're caring for others or have elderly parents, if you are ageing yourself and are facing end of life questions, if you are young and aware of life's preciousness, or if you have genuine questions about life and death and what it means to live fully and die freely, then this course has been crafted for you.
"Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most."
- Frank Ostaseski
If you are at all curious, we really encourage you to have a read of the program information and FAQs, and reach out to us if you have any questions.
And if you would like to watch a 10 minute video of Wendy and I sharing what brings us to the work and keeps us inspired you can find that here.
We are so looking forward to gathering, exploring, learning and growing together over the next 6 months.
Whether you join the course or not, I hope you have many extra-ordinary moments of celebrating this precious life, today and every day.
With love,
Chani