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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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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 -
Last Rites: A Catholic Send-Off" />
Last Rites: A Catholic Send-Off: A look at the religion's final prayer procession for the dying
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Tag Archives: Books and Literature
A Review of Book Reviews for “The Lifespan of a Fact” by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
Some reactions to a book that explores life’s big subjects: truth and death
As some might remember, there was a bit of an uproar this past winter over a thin, somewhat funny-looking book called The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. Although it did receive much attention, it’s hard … Continue reading
Book Review: Kayak Morning by Roger Rosenblatt
Navigating grief through meditation… and kayaking.
In his 2010 memoir, Making Toast, Roger Rosenblatt tells his story about loss after losing his daughter, Amy, unexpectedly. With a series of snippets similar to diary entries, Rosenblatt detailed his struggle with the aftermath and how he coped by … Continue reading
Book Review: “All for Now,” by Joseph Di Prisco
A Novel About Life After Death, More or Less
Brother Stephen dies suddenly. That’s when matters get more complicated. During a meeting of school administrators, Brother Stephen, the main character of Joseph di Prisco’s novel, All for Now, monk at a Catholic Seminary and a teacher in the attached high … Continue reading
Classic Book Review: As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
How the Bundren Family’s Journey to Bury Their Dying Matriarch Speaks to Life as Much as Death
Faulkner was a “Southern” writer, in the vein of Flannery O’Connor, but like O’Connor, his works tend to speak to larger themes. His third novel, As I Lay Dying, concerns a relatively simple set of events: the death of the … Continue reading
“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
From “Song of Myself”
- by Walt Whitman
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yaws over the roofs of the world. The last … Continue reading
Pleasure Healing: The Hand-Sized Guide to Self-Healing
Step-by-step mindful practices for starting a new life after grief
During a recent visit to the Kabuki Gardens of San Francisco’s Japantown (where I’d stopped in for a Swedish massage), I picked up the delightful read Pleasure Healing: Mindful Practices & Sacred Spa Rituals For Self-Nurturing. As I waited for my … Continue reading
Posted in Sharing Suzette
Tagged Books and Literature, Grieving, Healing, Mindful Practices, Personalized Ritual, Spa
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What is the Funeral Consumers Alliance? An Interview with Joshua Slocum
The Funeral Consumers Alliance talks about your rights...
Joshua Slocum is the Executive Director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA), a nonprofit dedicated to education and advocacy surrounding funeral consumer rights. Coming out next month, his groundbreaking (sorry) book Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death digs deep … Continue reading
Posted in Professional Advice
Tagged Books and Literature, Financial Matters, Funeral, Funeral Homes, Home Funeral, The FCA
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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
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A Doctor of the Dying Struggles with a Personal Loss
Working in nursing homes taught me about old age — but I was unprepared for my grandfather's last days
From the book How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old by Marc E. Agronin, MD. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2011. Until the year … Continue reading
Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter
by Antonia Fraser
From a distance, the marriage of Antonia Fraser, a notable British biographer and author, and the late Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate of Literature, would seem an unlikely match; Pinter having been rather irritable and abrasive, while Fraser more … Continue reading
Posted in Lending Insight
Tagged Biography, Books and Literature, Caregiving, Dealing with an Illness, Grieving
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Sex and Death
A night with Harold Pinter
I spent a night with Harold Pinter with Off Broadway West Theatre Company’s production of his two short plays, The Dumb Waiter and The Lover. I saw sex, death, and a whole lot of talent contained in two hours, and the adorably … Continue reading
Actress Michelle Williams on Mourning and Her “Year of Magical Thinking”
A recent interview with actress Michelle Williams about the sudden death in 2008 of her partner, actor Heather Ledger, reveals interesting lessons about both the nature of mourning and how we can be sensitive to those who are going through it.
Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger fell in love on set while filming Ang Lee’s 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, a film in which they played husband and wife. Shortly after filming, they became engaged and Williams had a baby, Matilda. In 2008, after Williams and Ledger had separated, Ledger, just 28 years old, was found dead of what was later determined to be an accidental overdose of prescription medication.
A private person by nature, in spite of her profession, Williams agreed to give her first on-camera interview with ABC’s Nightline correspondent Cynthia McFadden and was surprisingly candid about her grief. Continue reading