Celebrating Earth

The Earth is what we all have in common
~ Wendell Berry


Blue Marble composite by NASA in 2001 and 2002

Earth Day asks us to remember the expansive nature of our home planet, and our place within it. At the same time it calls upon us to be humble about the fragility and preciousness of our Earth and all of its inhabitants, including us.

Knowledge about mushrooms, AKA fungi, is expanding exponentially.
Research on the use of the psilocybin mushroom for addressing anxiety at end of life is transcending known ideas around well-being and wholeness.

Discover how mushrooms can change our minds and heal our planet in Merlin Sheldrake’s amazing new book, Entangled Life.

Also check out Louie Schwartzberg’s delighful film Fantastic Fungi, available on Amazon.

Surviving Death is a six episode docu-series about the possibility of existence after death based on the 2017 book Surviving Death by journalist Leslie Kean. It gathers innovative new research, personal stories and a historic perspective resulting in a multi-faceted look at the eternal question of 'What happens when we die?'

Watch the trailer here, and the Netflix link is here.

Kenzaburo Oe writes a beautiful story for the New Yorker about a father, his neurodivergent son and the places where life and death meet.

It's a meditation on family bonds and the contemplation of eventual separation embodied in Blake's epic, The Four Zoas, and the song of grief he gives to the god Tharmas upon the loss of his lover: & I am like an atom,/a Nothing, left in darkness yet; I am an identity:/I wish & feel & weep & groan. Ah, terrible! terrible!

You can read the New Yorker article here.


	Photograph: Linda Raymond/Getty Images

This thoughtful article by Emma Pattee in Wired magazine takes a look at how tech is transforming the ancient practice of intentionally contemplating one's death on a regular basis in order to more fully experience life while we have it.

There's an app for that now (multiple ones in fact). Pattee explores what is and isn't getting lost in the translation. You can read the article here.

Ed Powell writes in The Independent about the music that he turned to when his father died. It's a look at how grief is being experienced, mediated and transformed in the indie rock arena right now and in the past. Even minor losses remind us of the ultimate loss we fear the most - that of the beloved people in our lives. These artists turn towards that grief and sing a song for all of us.

You can read it here.

In 1969, singer Peggy Lee had a Top-10 hit with the song Is That All There Is? The lyrics to the song are inspired by the 1896 Thomas Mann story Disillusionment.

An existential anthem on the plight of human existence, the lyrics suggest that we “break out the booze and have a ball - if that’s all there is”, instead of worrying about life, and the inevitability of death.

You can listen to the song here
and watch it here.


	Photograph by Carrie Mae Weems, Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, recently opened at the New Museum including work from 37 contemporary Black artists, and an essay from Ta-Nehisi Coates. The conception for the show, (the brainchild of Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor) was to prioritize the interior feelings around grief, telling personal truths through aesthetic form. The experience of the show “channels emotional tenors…that are true to the history, and the future, of race in this country.” Coming in this year of enormous mourning, the work touches on shared human needs and the emotional resilience that are intertwined within them. Read more about the show here and visit the show virtually here.

	Melissa Bernstein - mother of six, partner in a thirty year marriage and co-founder of an iconic toy company that became a billion dollar business seemingly had it all figured out yet she suffered from a relentless, existential anxiety and depression. She chronicles her journey through and past that pain in her book Lifelines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness into Radiant Light. You can find a CBS news profile of her here and the website she has created to provide community for others who are doing soul searching of their own here. You can read the book here.

Practices

What if preparing for end of life was about learning how to live more fully while here? Sensory and somatic awareness are untapped attributes we all possess.

Karen Bellone created an introductory guided meditation series for you: 5 Sensory Awareness Practices in 6-minute episodes.

Click here.

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