Tucson Death Cafe Jan. 7th
A write up of Friendly & Fearless Tucson Death Cafe
A whole new place! A great big circle of interested, friendly and fearless folks!
Tucson Death Cafe started the new year with a new location and lots of new participants. More than twice as many people showed up than anticipated via RSVPs. Including facilitators Kristine and Cindy we made 27 participants (8 of whom were men!), which was a cozy crowd at Big Moe's, formerly the Coffee Loft, located in the Metal Arts Village. The new owner is opening the mid-town shop in the evening just for us and it offers privacy and nice outdoor spaces for spreading out when it is warm. We are grateful to her for opening her cafe expressly for us!
The cafe began with a crush to get hot drinks on a cold night and gather chairs for a starting circle. After a brief review of ground rules with an emphasis made on our opportunity for listening, an idea was offered to prompt discussion. Tonight's idea was an abbreviated version of a spiritual inventory a la Kathleen Dowling Singh (in her book "The Grace in Dying: How We are Transformed Spiritually as We Die") People who wished to were provided with a few questions taken from her book …. We moved into small groups for some pondering, sharing and listening to each other about "What gives my life meaning? What have I learned…? How can I best share…? Returning to a circle to close, someone shared their satisfaction for having made arrangements for their end. Then there was some discussion around the saying that if you want to know how someone will face death, look to how they live. Lastly, someone elicited the group's response to his concern of dying alone and not being found for a time. Some thoughts were offered and then it became quiet, so we closed another soothing gathering of Tucson Death Cafe. Thank you all and especially to the crew at Moe's. I am told there are some ideas in the works to make our future Death Cafe experiences even better, so we can look forward to that in the new year.
