There is no death. Only a change of worlds.

“There is no death. Only a change of worlds.”

“If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.”

– Chief Seattle (Sealth), Suquamish Chief


Hands by Kristin de Soto

Monthly Intro

This month has brought us yet more profound loss - the destruction of wildlife and the natural world from the fires on the west coast, an accelerated hurricane season on the gulf coast and the deeply significant passing of the ground-breaking pioneer RBG - we offer these resources for support and in remembrance of the Jewish blessing 'May her memory be a revolution'

Join us on social media––you can find us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.


Image by Uriel Soberanes/Unsplash, Public Domain Dedication (CC0).

Wendell Berry// Wendell Berry is a poet, novelist and environmentalist known for his commitment to honoring the natural world and its rhythms. He is an advocate for the grounded and the local as the source of community. You can read more about him here.

Read and listen to “The Peace of Wild Things” Written and read by Wendell Berry here.

Closing The Circle, by Wendell Berry
Within the circle of our lives
we dance the circle of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the season,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon…
Read the rest of the poem here.

Spiritfarer // Spiritfarer is an interactive video game which riffs off the mythology of the ferryman of Hades crossing the River Styx, gathering spirits to help them transition into the afterlife. This world is bright and colorful, not dark and morbid, utilizing a striking visual style inspired by Japanese painter Hiroshi Yoshida, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki.
Nicolas Guerin, the creator of Spiritfarer was driven by his own terror of approaching mortality. Collecting vital information from spending time with terminally ill people, he noted a consistency in the desire for human connection and finding calm, peaceful moments. Spiritfarer takes the player on an exploration of death that breaks the chains of our cultural fears, replacing them with modes of comfort.
Spiritfarer will be released later this year from Thunder Lotus Games and will be available on several platforms including Xbox One & PlayStation4. Read more about Spiritfarer here.

Ubi Caritas // Ola Gjiela is a Juilliard trained composer and pianist who is presently an exclusive Decca Classics artist. This is his arrangement of the hymn Ubi Caritas performed by the group Kings Return who describe themselves on FB as a "vocal band of brothers, formed in 2016 from pre-existing friendships, whose sound is rooted in Gospel, Jazz, R&B and Classical."

You can find out more about Ola here, and more about Kings Return here. Watch the full video here.

My Octopus Teacher // Craig Foster is a Documentary Emmy nominee and a diver - My Octopus Teacher is his doc is about his deep friendship with an octopus he visited almost every day over the course of her life - witnessing it in all of its beauty and mystery. It's an amazing hour and 25 minutes and well worth your time.

The official Netflix page is here which also includes the trailer.

The Soul of an Octopus // The subtitle of Sy Montgomery's fabulous book The Soul of an Octopus is A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness - she also writes of an intense friendship with an octopus, this one is named Athena. By the end of the book this incredible, individual animal will have touched your life as well in an unexpectedly profound way. You can find out more about Sy and the book here.


Illustrations by Kavya Singh and Anna Zylicz.

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee // Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is the Executive Editor of Emergence Magazine, as well as a filmmaker, composer and Sufi teacher. Check out this interview with him which delves into just how crucial it is to find interconnectivity with both the human and non-human world to forge an authentic relationship with our health.

Dr. Martha Beck // Dr. Martha Beck is a Harvard trained sociologist,
renowned life coach, bestselling author and has been a monthly contributor to O magazine for the last 17 years. Her work has always encompassed both the spiritual and the practical informed by psychological insights and research. In this article for Maria Shriver's newsletter she offers some insight on how to find refuge in times of confusion and upheaval.

You can find out more about her here.

Surge Capacity // Having trouble focusing on much of anything lately? Energy all over the place? You're not alone in dealing with the ramifications of what Tara Haelle names as 'ambiguous loss'. We're all in the middle of multiple life changing events right now and this article offers some essential context and scaffolding for managing it.


Screenwriter and author Karolina Waclawiak, whose new novel is “Life Events.” (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Life Events novel // Life Events, the third novel from author and screenwriter Karolina Waclawiak, follows a death doula who is just figuring out how to live her own life. Waclawiak had watched her own mother die, and it inspired her most hopeful novel yet. Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives had this to say about Life Events…“…you will never see life, death, grief, and healing the same way.”

You can read more about the novel in this recent LA Times article, and find the book here.

New in Website Resources

Video - Eben Alexander // Eben Alexander: A Neurosurgeon's Journey through the Afterlife – In this intimate and powerful re-examination of his best-selling book "Proof of Heaven," Dr. Alexander looks at the past two and a half years of his life spent in trying to reconcile his rich spiritual experience with contemporary physics and cosmology. He is convinced that his remarkable near-death journey is totally consistent with the leading edges of scientific understanding today.

Book - Dying: A Transition // This book introduces a process-based, patient-centered approach to palliative care that substantiates an indication-oriented treatment and radical reconsideration of our transition to death. Drawing on decades of work with terminally ill cancer patients and a trove of research on near-death experiences, Monika Renz encourages practitioners to not only safeguard patients' dignity as they die but also take stock of their verbal, nonverbal, and metaphorical cues as they progress, helping to personalize treatment and realize a more peaceful death.

Article - No One Dies Alone (NODA) Program // Not everyone goes to their deathbed surrounded by loved ones, which is why an Oregon nurse enlisted an entire hospital--everyone from kitchen workers to carpenters--to make sure that no one dies alone. Read the full article here.

ESfD Practices Page Feature // Breath by James Nestor

James Nestor has written a book on the unseen importance of something utterly essential that we take completely for granted. You can purchase the book here, and read a Terry Gross interview with the author here.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you feel might benefit from these resources and articles.

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Interested in collaborating?

On a final note we’d like to issue a call to collaborate in building our online community. Please let us know if you’d like to participate as a guest blogger - you can find us at info@exitstrategyfordying.com

EXIT STRATEGY FOR DYING