Griefwalking: The Soul of the Well Lived Life 2010
“How we die and how we care for dying people, and who our dead are to us: these are what make us human. These are where our real culture is made, or lost. Dying is where we can plant our feet in the world and live. Dying is village making.” Stephen Jenkinson
A culture addicted to security and comfort makes no time for sorrow, uncertainty or the end of things. But what would our culture look like if we began to honour and teach grief as a skill, as vital to our personal, community and spiritual life as the skill of loving? It would look like a vibrant, life loving village, a place that knows how to live and how to die. How we die, and how we care for those who are dying, either makes our communities or breaks them. We will learn something of the noble, courageous skills of making a village for those we won't live to see.
Join Stephen Jenkinson for a weekend devoted to making meaning of the end of life, and explore dying as a time when we can learn our humanity, capacity for love, endurance, and grief.
Friday evening features a public screening of Griefwalker, Tim Wilson's extraordinary National Film Board documentary portrait of Stephen's work and ideas. This film has been called, 'Astonishing...at once visually lush and scripturally poetic.`- The Globe and Mail. Griefwalker shows Stephen at work with dying people, and it reveals the cultural and spiritual roots that continue to shape his ideas and teachings. To view a clip: http://www.nfb.ca/film/griefwalker-trailer/ "
Please also see the website: www.orphanwisdom.com
Leadership
Stephen Jenkinson
Stephen, MTS, MSW, is a Harvard-educated theologian, teacher, ceremonialist and writer. He is the author of Money and the Soul’s Desires and How It All Could Be. Stephen is the subject of the NFB film “Griefwalker” and a Governor General’s award winning craftsman living in Ontario. As one of Canada's leading palliative care teachers, he is revolutionizing the way dying and death are known and done in North America. www.orphanwisdom.com.
Eliza Schurman
Eliza is a graduate of NSCAD and a lifelong painter in oil, acrylic, watercolour and mixed media. She teaches and exhibits in Canada, France and Cuba. Eliza also shares her skills in spiritual eldering, creative arts, and transformational leadership, and is a member of Shamanic Grandmother's Council of NS. She is also a member of the Tatamagouche Centre Program Resource Group.
