In certain lineages of Buddhism one important meditation is that if death.  Meditating on death can be an albeit peculiar way of appreciating this earthly life.  I’ve been wanting to talk more deeply about the subject for a very long time perhaps as a way to prepare for the inevitable, perhaps as a way to find some succour and beauty in the greatest mystery of all.  What better way to welcome in a new year than to contemplate death not alone but with other people who are around it and study it.  After speaking to my guests on the death series, I am reminded that we will never know what it is until we go through it, and we will go through it.  The dying remind us that under the layers and veneer of this mortal coil is a truth that we can access by opening our hearts, listening deeply and being present with one another.

This is something my last guest has practiced.

Amelie Villeneuve currently works in palliative care as a spiritual aid in a public hospital here in Montreal.  My talk with her was fascinating as someone who is surrounded by death everyday, but she also works with people who are healing or dealing with a loss but still have a lot of life to live.  It has definitely made her reflect on her own spirituality and what that means and how it changes, she tells me about what challenges her in the work but also the simplicity of connecting with someone, a stranger, who is dying and how intimate that is.  .  If you’re looking for answers, for life hacks, for the meaning of life, you won’t get it here but you will listen in on a very interesting. And intimate conversation

It reminded me that death is coming for me and that life is now.  Ok let that sink in.