A Unique Inspiration
In 2014 I learned about this movie, Death Makes Life Possible, directed by Marilyn Shlitz and Mark Krigbaum. I watched it in a small room with about 50 people and it changed my life. I was so excited about it that I bought the screening rights to the movie and took it on the road. I brought it to some local libraries and then facilitated a conversation afterwards.
It’s a great documentary that follows Marilyn Schlitz as she travels through science, spirituality, religions and human experience to try to answer one question: What is death – and how does understanding it change how we live.
She interviews scientists studying the mind and consciousness as well as folks with near-death experiences. She dives into different traditions from around the world and shares beautiful wisdom from spiritual teachers, philosophers and cultural leaders. It helps us look at death through different lenses and helps us live with less fear and more love
We are all born and we will all die. And when we embrace this, it helps us make peace with the unknown.
I’d love to bring it back to the libraries and facilitate conversations about it again.
Memories of this movie came back because this past weekend I was invited to participate in a group discussion with about 35 people – all friends of a woman named T. Most of the people in the room were involved in some way with death. Attendees ranged from death doulas, hospice care workers, green burial promoters, pine box builders, energy workers, clergy, meditation teachers, midwives, doctors, nurses and healers of all kinds. It was a soup full of the kindest most generous souls. There was even a couple there who created an organization where they are on call to visit hospitals or nursing homes and hold the hands of the dying who were alone - because no one should die alone. How amazing is that?
Each person there had an opportunity to talk about what this work meant to them and what motivated them to work in this field. As you can imagine, I was a puddle of tears as I witnessed the love and compassionate energy in the room.
It was so incredibly HOPEFUL reminding us that there is so much GOOD, in this world! There are so many beautiful caring people on this planet!
Thank you to all of you who work in a profession where you are holding people, helping people or healing people as they or their loved ones grapple with this final stage of life. We honor you and love you and support you.
If you’d like to know more about the different people who were there, please write to me at poweroflovestories@gmail.com and I am happy to share more of what I learned.
I highly recommend you see the movie, Death Makes Life Possible. It’s not an easy title to embrace, but I guarantee you, you will walk away with a renewed approach to death and see it not as an ending but as a doorway into a deeper more loving understanding of life.
“By exploring death, we can discover what it means to live fully.” – Marilyn Schlitz
“Death is not the opposite of life, but an innate part of it.” – Haruki Murakami
Love and gratitude,