“I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.”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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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
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Categories
Monthly Archives: November 2011
How to Help Someone Who is Grieving
SevenPonds suggests three tips to keep in mind
Experiencing a loss can profoundly affect a person, emotionally, mentally, and physically. If a family member or close friend has recently lost someone, it’s easy to feel helpless, and you may be uncertain how you should act around them. While … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged Death, Grief, Grief Loss and Bereavement, Healing, helping loved ones grieve, Loss, Mental health
3 Comments
The Role of Bargaining
Joyce Carol Oates sheds light on this important stage of grief
In a recent post, I wrote about the influence of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief; and while reading through the stories of one of Joyce Carol Oates’s collections, Sourland, I came across yet another short story which has at … Continue reading
Posted in The Next Chapter
Tagged Death, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Grief, Joyce Carol Oates, Sourland, The Barter
2 Comments
Changing the Material
Eco-friendly Burial and Cremation from Swedish Designer Liv Andersson
Swedish industrial designer Liv Andersson aims to create products that are an adaptation to the environment, with a holistic view of the life of the product. This project, Dust to Dust, “aims to get a holistic picture of what happens … Continue reading
Posted in Soulful Expressions
Tagged Art, Casket, Coffin, Cremation, Cremation Vessel, Design, Green Burial, Natural burial
2 Comments
An Interview with Sherri Lynn Wood
Part 2/2: Sherri explains how her artwork evolved into healing work
Read Part One of the interview, where Sherri guides us in the process of healing through quiltmaking. Dana: Do you explain the parallels between the quiltmaking process and the grief process in your workshops or with clients, or do you … Continue reading
Posted in Professional Advice
Tagged Art, Craft, Grief, Healing, Quilting, Sherri Lynn Wood
5 Comments
Looking at the essay, “The Love of My Life” by Cheryl Strayed
Bravely confronting the ways we choose to grieve
“The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead for exactly one week.” With this powerful statement, Cheryl Strayed begins her personal story of love, life, and death that could very well alter the way we … Continue reading
Posted in Lending Insight
Tagged Buddhism, Cancer, Cheryl Strayed, Cultural Perspectives, Death, Grief, Grief Loss and Bereavement, Grieving, Healing, Sadness, Unexpected Loss
5 Comments
Perfect Moments
Finding a way to heal after my husband's sudden death
This is the story of Mara Holt Skov, as told by Dana Sitar. Last year, my husband was climbing Mt. Rainier with a group of friends, destined for the top, but a big snowstorm hit, and they had to stop … Continue reading
Introducing SevenPonds Multimedia
And Much More to Come
As SevenPonds continues to grow, I am excited to announce the launch of the Multimedia section of our website. This is just one of the fabulous additions that we plan to roll out over the next few months to offer … Continue reading
Posted in Inside SevenPonds
Tagged Inside SevenPonds, Multimedia, SevenPonds Announcements
4 Comments
“Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.”
-Erik H. Erikson
Posted in A Right of Passage
Tagged Children and Death, Death, Death Saying, Death Saying Goodbye, Erik H. Erikson, Life, Poetry, Saying
1 Comment
The Serene Sleep
Matthew Arnold's poem shows that death is the most enviable state
I was reading about the famous poet and critic Matthew Arnold recently, and I discovered that he died of sudden heart failure while running to catch a tram. While this is of course tragic, I also had to appreciate the … Continue reading
Widows Reflect on Aging and Dying
Helen Nearing and Joan Didion Offer Us Their Thoughts
I was recently rummaging through an old bookstore when I stumbled on a copy of the book Light on Aging and Dying, by Helen Nearing, written when she was a widow. I was familiar with Helen and her husband Scott’s … Continue reading
Enduring Loss
Soulful Expressions from a SevenPonds Reader
This week’s Soulful Expressions is contributed by artist Diane Teske. If you would like to contribute or recommend art about death and dying, please contact dana@sevenponds.com. FLOWERS FADE from the artist: “I was led by my intuition to do a performance piece … Continue reading
An Interview with Sherri Lynn Wood
Part 1/2: The quiltmaker teaches us how the craft can guide us through the grieving process
I first discovered the craft of passage quilting just a few months ago when I featured artist Sherri Lynn Wood here at SevenPonds, and I was very excited to invite her to chat with us more in-depth about the process. … Continue reading
Posted in Professional Advice
Tagged Art, Craft, Grief, Grieving, Healing, Passage Quilts, Quilting, Sherri Lynn Wood, Workshops
1 Comment
Book Review: “Imperfect Endings”, by Zoe Fitzgerald Carter
Zoe examines her life as she faces her mother's chosen death
Zoe Carter’s busy life on the West Coast with her husband and daughters and an unfinished mystery novel are put on hold when her glamorous and stubborn mother, Margaret, decides that it is time” to end things”. Margaret has been … Continue reading
Posted in Lending Insight
Tagged Assisted Suicide, Book Review, Death, Family, Memoir, Right to Die, Zoe Carter
2 Comments
Losing the Love of My Life
Living on without my one great love
This is Barbara’s story, as told by Katie Ryan… We were married twenty-nine years when my husband told me he wasn’t feeling well. I took him to the doctors but they said he’d be fine. It was Christmas Eve and everything … Continue reading
How to Make a Will
Simplifying this important end-of-life task
One of the most vital end-of-life tasks is deciding what will happen with your estate after you’ve died. This can be a daunting undertaking, but with a little bit of planning, the burden of this task can be reduced. By learning how to make a will well ahead of the end-of-life, you can lighten the burden for yourself and your loved ones. Here are some questions to answer to make this a little easier: Continue reading
“Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.”
-Francis Bacon
Posted in A Right of Passage
Tagged Death, Death Saying, Dying, Famous Author Quotes, Famous Sayings About Death, Francis Bacon
2 Comments
Losing a Child
Ben Jonson's touching elegy is both tragic and optimistic
We’re all familiar with Shakespeare, but a lesser known contemporary of his is Ben Jonson, whose plays were more focused on satire. As comical as his stage plays were, however, Jonson actually suffered many tragedies in his lifetime, including the … Continue reading
Farewell Chapel at Teharje, Slovenia
The modern design invites us to look forward, not back.
When asked to design a Farewell Chapel in Teharje, Slovenia, Ljubljana-based firm Architektura Krušec created a structure that looks deliberately un-unified. Its roof appears to float above the structure, disconnected, and its local-sandstone walls are varying heights throughout the space. … Continue reading
Posted in Soulful Expressions
Tagged Cemetery, Funeral Chapel, Ljubljana, Memorial, Slovenia, Teharje
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