Blog | Signs of Life

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Sep 11
5 min

As Death Becomes Us

A meditation about our end-of-life is not the same as being our own Endling. Death is a trickster in traveling shoes. We do our best.

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Dina Stander

Aug 17
1 min

Poem: shout!

sometimes I feel the weight of what is yet to come and instead of pushing it off I open my heart

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Dina Stander

Aug 4
3 min

Waiting for the Drought to Break

There is nothing quite as exquisite as anticipating spine surgery. You know that you will wake up feeling like you got kicked by a horse.

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Dina Stander

Jul 28
3 min

We are all well enough...

I am not a person who harbors fears or overthinks risks. I have been known to throw caution to the winds. I have stepped off the edge and...

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Dina Stander

Apr 25
1 min

poem: all my might

all my might the middle daughter comes to visit she rakes leaves in the yard while I sit nearby but safely far away and we chat about cha...

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Prayer to Bless the Earth Receiving Burials at Hart Island

Dina Stander

Apr 20
2 min

Prayer to Bless the Earth Receiving Burials at Hart Island

May each breath be a solace and may remembering bring a blessing.

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Dina Stander

Apr 11
4 min

covid ~ anguish ~ 'last touch'

How to reach for connection when devices can't 'hit the spot'... and you're trying to convey a life time of love through a puny phone.

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Dancing With the Bones: Distanced Grieving

Dina Stander

Apr 7
17 min

Dancing With the Bones: Distanced Grieving

It is ok not to be ok. We are here to companion distanced grieving because human beings are in crisis... so I took my question to the trees.

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Dina Stander

Mar 25
4 min

By Donation/Pay As You Can

I made a decision today, based on my commitment to radical kinship. From now on my services are offered for a pay-what-you-can donation.

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Dina Stander

Mar 23
2 min

Each to their island... March 2020

There is no normal to retreat to. I stop, sit, take a breath and let it go. Wiggle the toes, accept not knowing, do my best and be here now.

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Dina Stander

Feb 27
7 min

Companioning the Dying: say what?

However you embrace or wrastle with your own mortality, companioning the dying will bring you (as my own old dead dad would say) toe to toe

1,678 views1 comment

A Treatise on EOLDs and Sliding Fee Scales

Dina Stander

Feb 20
6 min

A Treatise on EOLDs and Sliding Fee Scales

In a society that commodifies everything, alternative paradigms will sometimes be considered radical. Welcome to my world, Doula friends!

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HABITS THAT CULTIVATE WELLBEING WHEN EVERYTHING SUCKS:

Dina Stander

Feb 20
6 min

HABITS THAT CULTIVATE WELLBEING WHEN EVERYTHING SUCKS:

We are going to be bent low on the shores of an ocean of sorrow. Here are tips to cultivate resilience to face the fierce wind of our time.

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Dina Stander

Feb 20
8 min

Witnessing a Living Wake

Witnessing a Living Wake: a Celebrant's Perspective As a seasoned funeral professional, the concept of a living wake (or pre-wake wake, o...

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Dina Stander

Feb 1
2 min

Click Clack

I go out into the cold, stand close to a tall oak and listen to it commune with the cosmos, feeling my smallness to the marrow of my bones.

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Dina Stander

Dec 22, 2019
6 min

Solstice Blues (then & now)

I went looking in my archives for Solstice writing and offer this updated reflection on optimism and coping skills for dark times.

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Dina Stander

Dec 14, 2019
7 min

On Suffering

In which Dina describes to a roundtable of religious colleagues how she (an atheist) makes sense of the human predicament...

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Dina Stander

Oct 25, 2019
2 min

Clay, Creativity & Grieving

I had the distinct honor of presenting a collaborative workshop on Creativity and Grieving at the National Home Funeral Alliance conferen...

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Dina Stander

Aug 9, 2019
1 min

poem: I forgot to ask

I forgot to ask (for S. Trudel) Once the dust has settled after a death and the mad rush of deep memory short-films stashed in the way ba...

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To Have the Death You Want ~ Planning Matters As Much As Meditation

Dina Stander

Aug 3, 2019
4 min

To Have the Death You Want ~ Planning Matters As Much As Meditation

(some rambling thoughts on the concept of 'conscious dying', friendship, and time) In the pause before the heat of a summer day I wander ...

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