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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...

Dina Stander
Apr 25, 20201 min read
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Prayer to Bless the Earth Receiving Burials at Hart Island
May each breath be a solace and may remembering bring a blessing.

Dina Stander
Apr 20, 20202 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Apr 11, 20204 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Apr 7, 202017 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Mar 25, 20204 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Mar 23, 20202 min read
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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

Dina Stander
Feb 26, 20207 min read
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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!

Dina Stander
Feb 20, 20206 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Feb 20, 20206 min read
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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,...

Dina Stander
Feb 20, 20208 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Jan 31, 20202 min read
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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.

Dina Stander
Dec 22, 20196 min read
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On Suffering
In which Dina describes to a roundtable of religious colleagues how she (an atheist) makes sense of the human predicament...

Dina Stander
Dec 14, 20197 min read
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Clay, Creativity & Grieving
I had the distinct honor of presenting a collaborative workshop on Creativity and Grieving at the National Home Funeral Alliance...

Dina Stander
Oct 25, 20192 min read
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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...

Dina Stander
Aug 9, 20191 min read
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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...

Dina Stander
Aug 3, 20194 min read
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Death-Wellness is so much more than 'death-positive'!
Death-Positive this and Positive-Death that: a Movement. Meh. So much about death, dying, and surviving is *not* going to be or feel...

Dina Stander
Jul 26, 20191 min read
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Celebrants & Ceremony in Response to Climate Grieving:
How is Earth's story calling to you in this time of great change? What opportunities are you offering your community to address the...

Dina Stander
Jul 26, 20195 min read
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The World in Faces: photos by Alexander Khimushin
I want you to meet this human being. Because some time in the middle of this last winter I had a day that was too hard to bear. When I...

Dina Stander
May 4, 20191 min read
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A Day at the Office:
Work today is a story about a memorial service in an old New England church, with the tall windows that let all the light in and simple...

Dina Stander
May 4, 20191 min read
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