Death Cafe Blue Mountains
A write up of Death Cafe Blue Mountains
It began with a book, and ended with a poem.
The first official Blue Mountains Death Cafe was true to the Blue Mountains style. There was fantastic locally-baked cake, a stunning backdrop of World Heritage wilderness, and twenty people who had come to talk about death.
I think we were all encouraged and perhaps a little surprised at how easily the conversation flowed up and down the long table, which was beautifully set with white linen and heirloom silverware, courtesy of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre’s Lis Bastian.
The cafe was co-hosted by Kerrie Noonan, founder of the Groundswell Project and Dying to Know Day, and author Bianca Nogrady.
We began the cafe with a reading from Bianca Nogrady’s book The End: The Human Experience of Death. From there, we weren’t quite sure how things would progress but one by one, members of the cafe took up the baton and told of their own experiences, concerns, questions and thoughts.
People shared some amazing experiences, including one lady who had had a near-death experience in her early 30s and told of how it had changed her life forever.
The conversation also wandered into the realm of after-death, with discussion of funerals, burial choices and what people thought about for their own wakes.
There was also discussion of end-of-life choices, and how to ensure that your wishes are at least heard, if not respected and followed.
As we wrapped up the day with a sense of quiet achievement, one lady stood and offered us all a poem in farewell - Stages by Herman Hesse - which she recited by heart:
As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.
Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.
Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.
If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slave of permanence.
Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.
Comments
Very moving.
I am very interested and live in the Blue Mountains and would welcome the opportunity to attend a Death Cafe
Posted by John Macdonald