Episodes

When you watch someone you love live, and ultimately die, in an abusive relationship, how does it shape your own life? Sheila Kohler's sister was her childhood friend, her confidante. Living parallel lives, her sister Maxine staying in South Africa and Sheila traveling the world. But Maxine's death propelled Sheila towards a turning point. Sheila could see that accepting the abuse in her relationship had led to Maxine's death. Finding a resolve to make her own life what she wanted it to be, Shei...

One crushing event by itself would have led Deb Hart into a dark night of the soul. But how could she absorb two terrible losses; the death of her son at 22 and a breast cancer diagnosis? She asked all the usual questions; why me, what is the meaning of this, what's the purpose of living? As she navigated through her experience, she learned how to live with those questions and create a new life AFTER. Inevitably, part of making meaning of these terrible events led her offering service to others ...

As the life span of people diagnosed with cancer has lengthened, questions arise about what life looks like after. A physical illness is also a life event, a story that often needs to be told and existential questions that yearn for meaningful reflection. Surviving cancer and then learning to live in her changed landscape, Cheryl Krauter was able to employ all her training from a humanistic psychological perspective to tell her own story and find her transformed, authentic life. In her book, Sur...

How does it feel to live with life-limiting illness from your first day? How does it influence the way you look at the world and what you believe. And what is the impact of living with an illness that so many people die of, to be close, from an early age, to people you outlive? Nineteen year old Claire Wineland has lived with Cystic Fibrosis since early in her childhood and it has led her to a life of service and connection. She has written a book, delivered a TED talk and started a foundation. ...

In a childhood filled with loss, neglect and longing, perhaps the biggest loss is a connection to one's own heart. Hardening to cope with what is lacking, we can become rigid, avoiding our deep feelings and most precious longing. How do we re-awaken our connection to the deepest parts of us? Often, it is through pains that break open the protection we've created. We're no longer able to ward off the depth of our feelings. A process of grief, mourning and reawakening then becomes possible. For Le...

Some people think that dying people increasingly speak nonsense, losing their grip on reality. But Lisa Smartt, a linguist trained to pay deep attention to words, realized as her father was dying that what he was saying was coherent and deeply moving, pointing to a world which she little understood and inviting an exploration of what he might be talking about. After his death, she hurtled headlong into a mission; collecting final words, convinced they had something profound to offer those of us ...

Regardless of changes in the legal rights of LGBTQ people, end of life can feel like a step backward, with biased health care workers and lack of resources. How can we educate health facilities and workers to deliver appropriate services regardless of their personal beliefs or assumptions? And how do people in these communities come to trust that when they access services, they will be treated well and in a way that honors them as individuals? Kimberly Acquaviva has been on a mission to educate ...

The war between so-called pro-choice and pro-life forces in America seem divided beyond repair. But where does that leave women who have made the often painful and important decision to have an abortion? As Kassi Underwood says, they are left with a choice between regret and relief, with few opportunities to talk about the experience and feel supported in their personal struggles. Kassi knows from personal experience that needing to hide all the sometimes complex feelings left after an abortion ...

Sometimes a moment comes when we can no longer stay silent about what we have been through. Then it's time to speak out and claim our own courage and resiliency! Such a moment came for Milck, a musician who had experienced physical and sexual abuse and pressures to meet commodified standards of beauty, especially for her music career. Finding her unique voice led to her song Quiet, an anthem for breaking out of our silence. Then, after the 11/16 election, she felt moved to gather a flash mob and...

Barry Milazzo's beautiful son was born healthy and strong. But after two childhood immunizations, he became severely disabled, unable to communicate, walk or meet virtually any developmental milestones. With his faith severely tested, Barry deepened his own understanding of God in his life, learning to surrender to whatever might come next, while listening closely to any whispers of his own part to play in inviting his son's very best life. Barry's is a story of healing, and of learning to let g...

When our friends and loved ones face a crisis, we often don't know what to say. Do we say anything at all? What if we say the wrong thing? Nearly everyone who has faced a hard time has heard things that weren't so helpful. But worse yet is silence, saying nothing. Emily McDowell faced such a time and, as a graphic designer, she chose to respond by doing what she loved- creating cards that say what is most helpful in bad times. Her empathy cards not only helped people reach out; by sharing she al...

What more is to be learned when an experienced hospice and palliative care nurse is diagnosed herself? And how does that bring a deep richness to the world of her patients? Having learned the poetry of sitting with those facing serious and life limiting illness, Judith Redwing Keyssar brought all of that experience into her response to her own illness. All of what she felt and learned compel her to tell the stories of people at the end of their lives, encouraging us to practice dying by paying a...

Keeping our hearts open with people at the end of life brings blessings not just to them but to us as well. Accompanying people as they ail and die can be deeply rewarding and few feel this as keenly at Deanna Cochran, who trains experts in the field to meet each moment present and alive. A strong advocate for palliative care long before hospice is appropriate, she has brought her own experience with the death of her moth to countless families needing guidance with their loved ones' illnesses, p...

The dreams we have of loved ones after they die have a deep impact, connecting us to the person we've lost. Sometimes there is a special quality to the dreams, feeling more like visitations. But there is sometimes a hesitation to talk about these dreams. After his own loss, Josh Black was compelled to study these dreams, both because of his own experiences and because he saw that listening to the dreams of others offered them support in their pain. He remains committed to uncovering what these d...

Bringing compassion to the end of a life impacted by dementia presents unique challenges for families and caregivers. How do we face the inherent losses and frustrations with grace and create a warm and loving environment to improve the quality of this end time? While working with people with dementia facing the end of their lives, Joyce Simard developed a unique program embodying compassionate, holistic, person-centered care. She has travelled the world to share her model of care with providers...

When you're used to being certain, successful and on top of things, uncertainty is a new and unfamiliar territory. Amy Van Atta Slater entered that territory when illness, loss and divorce converged to create a very uncertain future. Now, what mattered was how she would respond to all the changes. What could she do to create a new life that reflected those changes? The changes that were beyond her control led to an examination of the changes she might choose, to create the life she really wanted...

Watching someone you love struggle with a mental illness is wrenching and frightening. Ingrid Blaufarb Hughes knows that all too well! Her son, Aaron, struggled with schizophrenia until it finally led to his death. She stood by helpless in the face of a world she did not live in, loving him but being unable to make a difference. Her experience with her brilliant son compels her to tell the stories of other families facing similar experiences. As a writer, she also needed to tell their story, elo...

When Dorothie and Martin Hellman faced the collapse of their marriage, it had to die in it's old form to make room for a new way of loving and relating to each other. But what started as a very personal path back to their marriage quickly taught them something significant about the world we live in; that it is indeed possible to face global challenges with compassion and love, creating solutions far beyond our limited imaginations. How did learning to love their differences and honor each other ...

When Marian Partington was 25 years old, her 21 year old sister vanished. She and her family would not know what happened for 20 years, leaving them in a state of suspended animation, moving forward and yet not. As Marian lived her life, forming relationships, having children and making a career, there was a frozen place which could not thaw until her sister's body was finally found and those responsible were identified. Yet she knew that the way forward must include an attempt to forgive. Her i...

On both sides of a family estrangement is the painful experience of missing what society leads us to believe is a given; that family sticks together. Sometimes, though, it becomes too painful to continue, either temporarily or permanently. How do separated family members find peace with an ambiguous loss in which they both know the other is still alive, possibly still relating to other members of the family and making assumptions about the other? Navigating this territory, on either side of the ...

How does a person who has been mistreated and neglected early in life create something better for themselves? Certainly part of it is being willing to face what happened and discover who you are separate from what has happened. Gewanda Parker made of her early pain and fear a life of service and hope. Now she seeks to serve other people who also struggle, and in the meantime, treasure the life she has created. But how did she find her way? What helped her to heal from such a desperate childhood?...

The rhetoric and actions of our recent election cut to the core of my own life and the safety of my family. Will my wife be stopped by police because she is Hispanic? Will my son-in-law and my grandchildren have to register because he was raised Muslim? Will those in my family with African heritage be attacked? And will I, as a lesbian, be targeted? Good Grief talks each week about the transformations that can come from loss, so I must open my heart to the possibility that this time too can be t...

Divya Parekh is a gifted business woman, working to inspire people towards their best selves. How did her own experiences of illness and difficulty release her into her own best future? Learning to support herself through the hard times was essential to her cultivation of a steadfast emotional intelligence she could share with others. Having been to the depths, she discovered the way through and deepened her passion for working with people to realize themselves. In the long hours she was forced ...

We hear quite a bit about the experience of cancer treatment; the shocking diagnosis, the decisions, the side effects. But how much do we hear about after, when most people with cancer must adapt to a new world view, lasting lasting impacts and deep existential questions about death, and life? At a time when communities are celebrating, offering congratulations for being done the person at the center of it all feels anything but. Leanne Pooley was shocked to discover her new landscape after trea...