WELCOME TO OUR BLOG
Welcome to the SevenPonds.com blog – a community-driven extension of SevenPonds.com! I hope you find comfort and community in the resources and stories featured here. I’m always happy to hear from readers and can be reached at suzette@sevenponds.com.
FEATURED
-
Poetree: The Innovative Urn: Margaux Ruyant's urn honors the life of the deceased while cultivating the new life of a tree -
Putting It Back Together: Exploring Grief through a near-death experience: A 21-year-old woman's near-fatal accident alters her relationship with life. -
Buddhism and the Eastern Middle Ground: In Buddhist tradition, our death falls into a plane of existence that continues even after our final breath
-
Categories
Monthly Archives: April 2011
An Interview with Doctor C
How doctors can make a killing keeping end-of-life patients "alive"
This is an interview with an oncologist at a leading cancer treatment center in Tucson, Arizona. We will call him Doctor C. Aurora: What question do you most often receive as an oncologist? Dr. C: “How do you stand it?” … Continue reading
Posted in Professional Advice
Tagged Advance Care Directives, Aid in Dying, Cancer, Hospice, Palliative Care
4 Comments
Honoring Life at Death
End-of-life evolution in America
America is beginning to rethink the way it bids farewell to life. Traditional burial services are becoming less and less common as people begin to think of the funeral as a way to not only be returned to the earth, … Continue reading
The Impossible Dream: Part One
One man's struggle to connect with his father, in life and in death
This is the story of Mark, as told by Aurora Wells… It’s such a sad old feeling the fields are soft and green it’s memories that I’m stealing but you’re innocent when you dream when you dream you’re innocent when … Continue reading
Who Wrote the Saddest Song of the Century?
Oh Where Oh Where Can My Baby Be?
Everybody knows the song “Last Kiss.” Everybody’s heard it at least once, and after they do, they tend to remember it. The haunting refrain “Oh Where Oh Where Can My Baby Be?” just stays with you, cuts through whatever else … Continue reading
The Science of Death
How we measure life through time and space
As each of us reaches a point in life where our own mortality begins to signal our radars, the measure of our life by “time” becomes ever more important. Each of us has our own personal sense of time and … Continue reading
What is natural burial? An Interview with Kathy Curry
The manager of Fernwood Cemetery talks green burial
Fernwood, a beautiful historic cemetery located in Mill Valley, CA, is the second cemetery in the United States to offer green burial. SevenPonds caught up with Kathy Curry, the manager of Fernwood, for a Q & A on their services. … Continue reading
Mrs. Zhang and her House Made of Paper
A tale of destruction, sorrow and love — during the Chinese Cultural Revolution
This is the story of Mrs. Zhang, as told by her son-in-law to Aurora Wells… Mrs. Zhang was the first woman in her entire ancestral history to receive an education. During the 1950’s in China, before it was acceptable for … Continue reading
Posted in Opening our Hearts
Tagged Caregiving, Cremation, Cultural Perspectives, Depression
3 Comments
Love and Death, Carried by Fire
Is Cremation the New American Way?
“Let not their dust be parted for their two hearts in life were singe-hearted.” — Purified by Fire Our world is always changing; and today, the scattering of cremation ashes onto the open winds ritualizes the loving act of letting … Continue reading
Vadis Turner’s “Burial Party” at Manhattan’s Lyons Wier Gallery
Confronting the Last Taboo
Artist Vadis Turner has long specialized in re-visualizing the everyday from a subversive, feminist perspective. Her 2009 piece “Vanity: My Beautiful Education,” presented an almost violently arrayed set of sculptures, composed of materials such as tampons, fake eyelashes, fake fingernails, … Continue reading
What’s a Center for Grief? An interview with Cindy Ainsworth and Stephanie Demos
Directors at Kara grief center discuss their support programs and the "healing door"
Kara (the gothic root for “care”) is a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization and renowned grief center, providing powerful, free grief support services to the San Francisco Bay Area from their Palo Alto home since 1976. Truly, the breadth, success, and compassion … Continue reading
Standing at the Threshold of Absence: Part Two
My private memorial to Grandma as the witness of her cremation
This is Part Two. Read Part One here. The story of S.H., as told by Aurora Wells… Now I took one final step up: I offered to witness her cremation. Even though it cost more, my family agreed. I had … Continue reading
Posted in Opening our Hearts
Tagged Caregiving, Cremation, Grieving, Healing, Palliative Care, Personalized Ritual
1 Comment
The Parting Glass
Classic Irish folk song performed by the High Kings
Of all the money that ere I had, I spent it in good company. And of all the harm that ere I’ve done, alas was done to none but me. And all I’ve done for want of wit, to memory … Continue reading
Random Hearts
A Mediocre Film Poignantly Captures the Experience of Tragedy
After suffering a personal tragic loss, I stumbled on the film Random Hearts one sleepless night. With expectations low as my eyelids, I quickly found myself riveted; Random Hearts succinctly tapped into all the emotional repercussions one experiences following a … Continue reading
Posted in Sharing Suzette
Tagged Grieving, Losing a Partner, Movies, Unexpected Loss
Leave a comment
Ghost Urn
by Anna Marinenko
This eerily beautiful, time capsule inspired urn prototype, from Ukrainian designer Anna Marinenko, achieves both modern elegance and archetypal timelessness — with a touch of humor, to boot. Says Ms. Marinenko, the ghost urn is “perhaps the only way to be certain … Continue reading
What is sea burial? An Interview with Anya and Ken Shortridge
SevenPonds explores ocean burial with "Ashes on the Sea"
“Ashes on the Sea,” a small company run by Ken and Anya Shortridge, has been providing beautiful, personalized ocean burial services to the San Diego area since 1997. Anya and Ken agreed to speak with SevenPonds about what their practice has … Continue reading
Standing at the Threshold of Absence: Part One
My private memorial to Grandma as the witness of her cremation
The story of S.H., as told by Aurora Wells… All of us knew we couldn’t tell her, let alone treat her. She was 95 and forgetful — she would have had to relive that terrible moment over and over. Can … Continue reading
Posted in Opening our Hearts
Tagged Caregiving, Cremation, Grieving, Healing, Palliative Care, Personalized Ritual
1 Comment
An Interview with Dr. Marc E. Agronin
The author of How We Age breaks it down
How We Age is Dr. Marc E. Agronin’s memoir about his exposure to aging and death, primarily through his medical practice at a Miami nursing home many call “God’s waiting room”. Through interviews with his patients, personal anecdotes, and expert medical … Continue reading
Posted in Professional Advice
Tagged Aging and Elder Care, Books and Literature, Caregiving
2 Comments
