May It Be

In the last month, I’ve had 5 Zooms with aspiring death workers. I love every second of these calls and feel so grateful to learn from the callings that lead others to me. But for every 10 calls I take from people curious about becoming a death doula, I receive 1 call from a potential client. What’s going on here?

Maybe we are coming to see the cost of the collective grief we all carry when our society runs from death, dishonors the dying and abandons grief?

Maybe those of us called to serve Death are practicing to serve ourselves and those we hold most dear?

Maybe we all feel more comfortable labeling ourselves as “guide” instead of “dying person”?

Maybe Death is calling us to invite her back into the home with reverence and sacredness?

Maybe we’re tired of being exploited by the systems designed to “serve” us and this is the first step in a cultural revolution?

Maybe our society as a whole is entering its dying process and it’s going to be all hands on deck for those who are awake and aware?

Maybe hospice, the one system designed to nurture us while we die, has become as hungry for profit and efficiency as the medical and funeral machines? 

Maybe we miss the place of ritual and ceremony in our spaces of death and grief and want to reclaim them for ourselves?

Maybe we see the burnout and exhaustion of the medical complex and are desperate to hit the pressure valve?

Maybe we’re scared we won’t have anyone to witness our own deaths if we don’t learn to witness others?

Maybe we are collectively longing for a different way to die and grieve and death work feels like a place to start.

Maybe… Maybe… May it be.  May it all be.