Vizzy D Darlings, This week we're jumping into language and I'm inviting you to embrace this prompt in two ways: 1. Reflect on your own relationship with language in your corner of death and grief care. What's changed and evolved in you and your work? 2. How might you share this as advocacy? On socials, in a blog post, in an interview, in a conversation with someone. How can you more concisely weave and speak the evolution of death care language into your work and world? 🐦‍⬛ There's so much within language that's nuanced to who we are, where we work and what we do. A funeral director in a regional town carries different words than a chaplain in a city hospital, than a doula sitting with someone dying at home. None of us are working from the same script, and I don't think we should be. And yet, reflecting on the language we uphold and perpetuate in this work is relevant no matter where we live and what we do. It's culturally nuanced and our responses will all be different. It's something we should all keep tending to. For example, a lot of the western Anglo-centric grief language encourages us to "ask their name", or to "speak their name" to honour that person's loss and keep their memory alive. Some of my ‘best performing’ social posts are about exactly this. And yet, when I support First Nations families here in Australia, the cultural protocol is the opposite. In some communities you DON'T speak their name for the first year, to ensure their spirit can be free in the Dreamtime and not unsettled during a time when it needs to move on undisturbed. When supporting Sorry Business (the Indigenous name for death care and funeral rites), I always ask permission to speak their name or ask how best to refer to the person who has died. There will be nuance with this in all countries and communities. 🐦‍⬛ Here's some more examples from me if helpful. I haven't quite worked out how I want to share this as advocacy, but feel free to borrow or apply anything that resonates for you.

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has been legal in Canada since 2016. Dr Stefanie Green was the first doc to provide this and this is a book about her first year doing so, and her work with legislation. https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Assisted-Dying-Empowering-Patients/dp/1982129468

Amy - I just purchased your e-book and it's fantastic! Inspiring examples of unique gatherings that are truly meaningful, and practical suggestions for how to begin crafting a celebration of life for someone. This is a great new tool in my toolbox!

Hello my darling Vizzy D's - ! We just ticked past 200 people in this little community. And we only started dreaming into all this eleven weeks ago. Eleven weeks. I keep sitting with that number, turning it over. When I started this I thought it was about visibility 'out there'. Being seen in our communities, online, in the industry. And it still is that. But watching this group take shape week by week, I'm noticing something else happening. We're becoming more visible to each other too. There are threads of connection forming here that I don't want to lose or let sit quiet in the comments and scroll past. So this week I want to slow down and ask you something honestly, because I don't want to build this community on guesses. 🐦‍⬛ Visibility Prompt for this week: What would genuinely serve you here? What do you actually want to get out of this group and the people in it? We're all coming at this work from different angles, different stages, different corners of the industry, so I know there's no single answer. But I'm keen to understand how we support each other well as this thing keeps growing... To get the conversation started, here are some shapes this could take. Pick as many as take your fancy, add your own, tell me what's missing... 1) Themed Deep Dives - ticketed online calls where we sit with one specific topic properly, instead of skimming past it in a scroll. Things like the trend toward direct cremation, VAD, business models in death care or the inner work this job demands of us. Sessions get recorded and made available in the classroom as ticketed Masterclass recordings afterwards, so the conversation keeps earning for the people who showed up and did the work. Profits shared amongst presenters. 2) Regular free drop-in calls - maybe every 6 to 8 weeks, no agenda beyond showing up. 3) One-to-one sessions with me - ticketed audit or planning sessions where we look at where you're at and map out what's next for you. 4) More self-paced courses - websites, newsletters, that kind of practical groundwork.

I recently received this email from a counsellor looking for death care workers around Ontario & Quebec? Let me know if you’d like me to put you in touch with her… 🙏