Join me for this sacred journey to contemplate end-of-life intentions and prepare the appropriate documents.

Whether for yourself or for a loved one, intentionally preparing for death honors life and greatly increases the likelihood of having a good death.

Creating clear end-of-life paperwork is important for all stages of life and health. Written documents help loved ones know what to expect, guide our own inner and outer processes and, when the time comes, allow us to turn our attention to the mystery and magic inherent in the dying process. As we make the time and space to contemplate important end-of-life questions, we become more comfortable considering, discussing, and deciding on all aspects of the ideal journey.

This workshop series will focus on death literacy and provide an overview of the entire spectrum of end of life paperwork with a core focus on the Five Wishes. The Five Wishes document is an internationally renowned advanced directive often described as a “living will with a heart and soul.”

We will address:

• The Five Wishes
• Addendum to the Five Wishes
• Dementia Directive
• MOST & DNR
• After Death Considerations 
• Home Funeral & Home Burial Overview
• Financial Considerations

During our time together, you will receive an overview of the entire spectrum of end-of-life paperwork, focus extensively on end-of-life directives, dive into after-death options, and come away with a profoundly expanded understanding of end-of-life options. 

Expect expert information, real-life examples, one-on-one and group discussions, opportunities for contemplation, resources galore, and easy discussions, as well as active encouragement for next steps. Working in a group context allows for a depth of sharing that is not accessible in an individual process. The supportive group atmosphere offers an exchange of ideas, experiences, stories, and support as you work through your process. And you may join in a movement that ultimately builds death-literate and death-positive communities.

Lee Warren has been fortunate to learn from the dying in the context of a village. Over the course of two years, from 2016 to 2018, there were six deaths at Earthaven Ecovillage, the place she’s called home for more than two decades.

Those deaths, and the generous people who experienced them, were incredible opportunities for service to the great mystery. From end-of-life paperwork preparation, to working with hospice and sitting with the dying, to collaborating with blood families on all aspects of the death process, to tending our beloveds for after death services, to creating home wakes, home funerals, and home burials, the village came alive with cooperation and the magic of synchronized flow.

These end-of-life ceremonies and rituals weave together the fabric of community, which gives meaning to every aspect of the death process. People, both from within and from outside the village, expressed how life-changing and heart-expansive these experiences were for them.

What Lee learned during this sacred time is the following:

• Death is a gift for all involved.
• We have everything we need internally for a good death.
• Conscious and positive death experiences are possible.
• Preparing in advance, both internally and externally, makes a good death more possible.
• A village context is by far the best way to depart. So let’s build the village. Everywhere.
• Tending to the dying creates a bond with the whole in a way that nothing else does.

Lee has woven end-of-life education into her community building work as foundation to becoming alive, present, and embodied humans.