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
-
Our Annual Seven Holiday Gifts for Someone Who Is Grieving, 2024 Edition: Gracious gifts that spread love and beauty -
“Making Mobiles” by Karolina Merska: An artist’s manual on how to create beautiful Polish pajaki -
“Hands Up to the Sky” by Michael Franti & Spearhead: A surprisingly upbeat song about acknowledging both loss and the beauty of life
-
Categories
Tag Archives: Dying
“Cremation or Burial? A Jewish View” by Doron Kornbluth
A case advocating burial over the increasingly popular practice of cremation
Modern society tends to prefer cremation: it is perceived as cheaper than a burial, more environmentally sound, and, well, just more hip. To the contemporary person, “the idea of scattering ashes seems a eco-friendly alternative” to burial. The idea of … Continue reading
Posted in Lending Insight
Tagged Abrahamic Religions, Ashes, Burial, Cremation, Death, Death Care, Doron Kornbluth, Dying, Eco-Friendly, environmental impact, Funeral, Funeral Services, Great Britain, Grieving, Japan, Jewish Culture, Jewish Tradition, Judaism, Natural burial, Sea Burial, Space Funeral, United States
2 Comments
“Septimus” by Rachel Wetzsteon
A personal look at a poem considering the tragedy and beauty that accompany both life and death
So often we are conditioned to think of death as something tragic. And, undoubtedly, losing someone is heartbreaking. It shakes your entire world. It changes the way you move through your day to day. I had been, for many years, the … Continue reading
Posted in The Next Chapter
Tagged Beauty, Death, Death in Poetry, Death Poetry, Dying, Hope, Hopeful, Joy, Poem, Poetry, Rachel Wetzsteon, Silver Roses, Writing
Leave a comment
The Return of the Shrouding Women
Women are reclaiming jobs as funeral directors – a death-care profession dominated by men for over a century
Once death care was viewed as a woman’s job. The shrouding women washed the body of the deceased, anointed it with herbs, dressed and prepared it for a funeral or a wake. Women helped bring life into this world and … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged Caregiving, Cremation, Death, Death and Dying, Dying, Empathy, End-of-life care, Funeral, Funeral Directors, Grief, Women Funeral Professionals
Leave a comment
Light Passing Through
Amy Friend's photographs materialize the transience of light and being
Amy Friend’s photographic series “Dara Alla Luce” whispers ephemeral. Orbs of light give form to lines of the body, subjects whose physiology has long been returned to the dirt of the earth. Dara alla luce is Italian, translated as “to bring to the light.” We … Continue reading
Posted in Soulful Expressions
Tagged Amy Friend, Art, California Sunday Magazine, Death, Dying, Light and Being, Orbs, Photo Art, photography, Soulful Expressions
Leave a comment
Last Rites: A Catholic Send-Off
A look at the religion's final prayer procession for the dying
Catholicism has never been number-shy in its teachings. Confess a sin? Ten Hail Marys. Looking to convert? Get ready for a slew of Sunday or Bible school classes, then 1. Baptism, 2. Confirmation, and 3. First Communion. If your list … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural Perspectives
Tagged Anointing of the Sick, Catholic, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Death, Dying, end-of-life, Faith, God, Last Rites, Peace, Prayer, Religion
3 Comments
A Few More Days of Purpose
After a career in nursing, Martha Keochareon spent her last days teaching nursing students how to care for cancer patients in palliative treatment
Sometimes people donate their bodies to science after death, but Martha Keochareon had offered herself as an instructional tool during her last two months of life. In November of 2013, Ms. Keochareon called Kelly Keane, a counselor at Holyoke Community College … Continue reading
Posted in Something Special
Tagged Dying, Holyoke Community College, Hospice, Hospice Care, intent, Martha Keochareon, Nursing students, Palliative treatment, Pancreatic cancer, Patient, purpose, The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, The New York Times, therapeutic communication, tranquility, tumor
2 Comments
