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
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Buddhism and the Eastern Middle Ground: In Buddhist tradition, our death falls into a plane of existence that continues even after our final breath -
10 Facts About Hospice Care You May Not Know" />
10 Facts About Hospice Care You May Not Know: NHPCO stresses that hospice is about living fully, not preparing for death. -
Man of Many Faces" />
Man of Many Faces: A niece says goodbye to her favorite gay uncle, in whom she confided about her own sexuality
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Monthly Archives: August 2011
Coming Soon at SevenPonds
What Will be Launching Next
Be on the lookout at SevenPonds because new additions are on their way. In the coming months, we are pleased to announce the launching of our Local Resources—a comprehensive database of services and products for everything the end-of-life experience requires. … Continue reading
Posted in Inside SevenPonds
Tagged Coming Soon, end-of-life, End-of-life Planning Guide, Local Resources, SevenPonds
1 Comment
Life and Death Matters Festival Kicks Off Tomorrow
Annual "more-than-film festival" brings together art and education to examine the journeys of life and death.
The first-annual Life and Death Matters Festival begins tomorrow at the Nomad Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, and runs through Sunday, September 4th. The festival, which was conceived last fall as a platform for filmmakers who addressed the journeys of life … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged Arts, Colorado, End-of-life Art, End-of-life hapennings, Erin Kelly, Events, Festival, Filmmaking, Karen van Vuuren, Life and Death, Transition
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“Every blade in the field, every leaf in the forest, lays down its life in its season, as beautifully as it was taken up.”
-Henry David Thoreau
The Passing of Burning Man’s Urban Planner
Rod Garrett, the Man Behind Burning Man’s Temporary City
Rod Garrett, renowned urban planner behind the annual Burning Man Festival, passed away on August 23rd at the age of 74. As Burning Man’s numbers swelled, well beyond the 20-strong gathering around a 1986 bonfire on San Francisco’s Baker Beach, … Continue reading
Death as Transition
John Donne helps us see that we are all connected, even in death
You have probably heard the famous phrase “No man is an island,” whether in a classroom, or being quoted by one of your more pretentious friends. But you might be less familiar with the piece of writing this expression originates from: … Continue reading
Photographer Finds Beauty in Forgotten Cremation Vessels
David Maisel draws together beauty and ethics in his collection featuring the controversial canisters of Oregon State Hospital
The majority of photographer David Maisel‘s work focuses on environmentally-impacted sites, which comprise a multi-chaptered series called Black Maps. His most recent collection, Library of Dust, looks at an intersection of aesthetics and ethics, displaying the simple beauty of death … Continue reading
Posted in Soulful Expressions
Tagged Art Book, Cremation, Crematorium, Crematory, David Maisel, Library of Dust, Oregon State Hospital, Urn
1 Comment
An Interview with Jerrigrace Lyons: Part One
One of the first home funeral consultants shares her wisdom
Jerrigrace Lyons is a family funeral guide and educator—one of the original pioneers of the home funeral movement. She is a founding member of the Home Funeral Alliance, and the founder and director of Final Passages, through which she both guides families … Continue reading
Joining the 27 Club
The Death of Amy Winehouse: Why Do Artists Die Young?
It is a story as old as any: a creative genius laid low by the fruits of their own talent. More than anyone else, the death of Amy Winehouse, an undeniable musical talent who reinvigorated a genre and won fame … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged 27 Club, Amy Winehouse, Artists Die Young, Artur Rimbaud, Heath Ledger, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Mozart, Tupac Shakur
4 Comments
A Charred List and a Pencil to Write it With
The strength and hope of my family in the face of a tragedy.
This is the story of Lyndsey Carpenter, as retold by Dana Sitar. My uncle and I had a quiet relationship; we spoke without talking a lot. I could almost always tell what he was thinking about the stories I was … Continue reading
Robert Ettinger Passes From his First Life
A lesson on Nanotechnology, Singularity University, and Cryonics under the Redwoods
Robert Ettinger, the father of Cryonics, passed on July 23rd. For details on the cryonic process Ettinger scientifically proved possible (which involves slowly freezing the body, followed by suspension in a container of liquid nitrogen), click here. Life brings themes into … Continue reading
Posted in Just Passed
Tagged Cryonics, Hash Trees, Merkle Trees, Nanotechnology, Ralph Merkle, Robert Ettinger, Singularity University
1 Comment
MLK Memorial Opens to Public in Washington, D.C.
The memorial remembers the Civil Rights leader in honor of the 48th anniversary of his famous speech.
Monday was the soft opening for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The 30-foot-tall memorial is the first in the Mall to honor an African American, as well as the first to … Continue reading
When I’m Dead And Gone
- McGuinness Flint
When I’m Dead And Gone – Lyrics By Graham Lyle & Benny Gallagher Ooh I love you baby, I love you night and day When I leave you baby, don’t cry the night away When I die, don’t you write … Continue reading
Studying “The Landscape of Death” in Elizabeth Lesser’s The Seeker’s Guide
Make your life a spiritual adventure
“What must die within you now, so that you can grow?” In Elizabeth Lesser’s beautiful summation of life’s big questions, The Seeker’s Guide, we are given the opportunity to follow her rollercoaster of realizations, lessons, and insights as she herself … Continue reading
Posted in Lending Insight
Tagged Elizabeth Lesser, Grieving, Spirituality and Belief, The Seeker's Guide
1 Comment
Celebrity Death Hoaxes
What’s up with our national appetite for celebrity deaths?
One morning this week I opened up my Yahoo! Instant Messenger account and read the latest celebrity hoax – Jackie Chan is dead. Jackie Chan is dead?! I never knew he died. I am always out of the loop on … Continue reading
Reassurance in Death
Nature reminds us that death is part of her poetry
When I was fourteen, my family went on a vacation to Ireland. We drove through the much-too-small roads in a much-too-big rental car: a Mercedes van that seated ten. It sometimes felt perilous weaving through quaint little towns in a … Continue reading
Posted in The Next Chapter
Tagged Cemeteries, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Graves, Nature, Poetry
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Shine On Brightly: The Art of Reverence
Company creates artistic cremation vessels and memorial art to honor life and spirit.
Shine On Brightly offers artist-created cremation vessels and custom memorial art pieces to honor the deceased. Their mission states: “We believe that art has the power to heal, to unite, and to express felling when words sometimes can’t be found.” … Continue reading
Posted in Soulful Expressions
Tagged Art, Cremation, Cremation remains, Cremation Vessel, Crematorium, Crematory, Death and Dying, Keepsake Urn, Memorial, Urn
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An Interview with Jerrigrace Lyons: The Introduction
One of the first home funeral consultants shares her wisdom
Jerrigrace Lyons is a family funeral guide and educator—one of the original pioneers of the home funeral movement. She is a founding member of the Home Funeral Alliance, and the founder and director of Final Passages, through which she both … Continue reading
Book Review: “Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death”, by Joshua Slocum and Lisa Carlson
A Valuable Book That Sometimes Suffers from an Overly Glib Tone
Joshua Slocum’s and Lisa Carlson’s book, Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death, is one part in-depth expose of all things deplorable and funeral, and two-parts step by step manual detailing the different states’ laws regulating this shadowy industry, … Continue reading
An Unexpected Gift of Closure
How my father’s betrayal ultimately healed me
On the last day of 2006 (my annus horribilis), I learned—months after the fact, of my estranged father’s death. A devastating confluence of sudden misfortunes both personal and professional had landed me, at 25, in the last place I would … Continue reading
Posted in Opening our Hearts
Tagged Addiction, Cancer, Inheritance, Parenting and Family Issues, Unexpected Loss, Wills
2 Comments
A Memory in a Bottle
Words of love serendipitously delivered after the loss of a loved one
A message in a bottle seems like a thing of fantasy, romance. But, people still give it a shot, tuck a note into a bottle, toss it into the waiting waters, and cling to the hope that their message will … Continue reading