Tag Archives: Spirituality and Death

What is the Sacred Dying Foundation? An Interview with Megory Anderson

Bringing sacredness and a spiritual element to the end-of-life experience

Megory Anderson is the founder of the Sacred Dying Foundation, an organization designed to bring sacredness and a spiritual element to the end-of-life experience. She is a theologian, educator, liturgist and author of the books Sacred Dying: Creating Rituals for … Continue reading

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Estate of Dr. Death Includes Original Oil Paintings

Dr. Jacob Kevorkian's estate reveals passion and pain around the politics of death

Jacob “Jack” Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 – June 3, 2011) was known widely as “Dr. Death” for his highly politicized pioneering efforts to legalize assisted dying in the United States. In 1991, a judge dismissed a murder charge against Kevorkian, … Continue reading

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When A Child Has A Terminal Illness

Reflections on a short, full life, part two

Each month Kathleen Clohessy, R.N., offers a new perspective on living with a terminal illness. Kathleen comes to SevenPonds with 25 years experience as a registered nurse caring for families and children facing life-threatening illness. She began her career in the … Continue reading

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“Kaddish” by Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg memorializes his mother's struggle with mental illness in his spiritual masterpiece

When readers discover beat poet Allen Ginsberg, they often first come across the poem “Howl“. The elegiac rhapsody was (in)famous in its time for its explicit language and an ensuing obscenity trial that, ironically, only threw Ginsberg’s work straight into national … Continue reading

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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on aging, Christianity and the mysteries of life and death

There’s too much to praise in Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead. Such luminous beauty and spiritual verve, as always sought but rarely seen, rewards the reader who opens this story based in Gilead, a small, fictional town in Iowa. A novel … Continue reading

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“Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens

A folk memorial song about a loved one with cancer and the limits of faith

Nothing can evoke the mystery of loss like a well-told story, or a ballad. One of my favorite songs by Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day” from his album “Illinois” tells the story of a young girl who dies from cancer. … Continue reading

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