And All the Lives We Ever Lived ( part 1)
reflections on change
“And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be-
Are full of trees and changing leaves.”- Virginia Woof
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER
Now that I’m almost 46, I look back at the decades of my life and have given them all titles.
as a total bibliophile, book witch, word witch-
it’s no surprise that I see life organized this way.
Our days playing out, chapter by chapter, until at some point, it will end.
THE END.
as each of the “ chapter titles” of my life have changed so have my home library themes and contents.
I have gone through many seasons of walking with a full back pack to local Free Libraries and dropping off dozens of books that I have outgrown.
I recently heard someone say ( wish I could remember who!) that life is about curiosity and discernment.
This resonates.
My current chapter of life is called:
Plants & Death
Here’s a brief overview:
After years of relentless intense parenting, working various aging & death related jobs, studying to become a Hebrew Priestess and being very engaged in local and national activist causes, Pleasance embarks on a new journey.
She steps back from many groups and communities she was active in to explore life learning about perennials and native plants in DC. As a consultant for a future natural burial site in MD, she realizes how little she knows about the land around her, and decides it’s time to learn. She finds stability and steadiness in the outdoor space, forced to be off the phone and computer for 20 hours a week, her system flourishes away from tech, giving her a much needed break from the intensity of the past few years. Within the first weeks of being with the plants, she begins to hear their wisdom. She has always been able to communicate with the more than human world, but this is a whole new channel. It’s wild and wonderful. It’s life affirming, and so deeply nourishing. And while many things in the world are in deep despair and crisis, she attunes to the wisdom of the plants to help guide her to the next right action. Moment to moment aliveness as remedy, as protocol, as prescription.
When she’s not with the plants, everything in her life is about death related topics. She gathers folks for death related community events, she listens to podcasts, watches documentaries, chats with death professionals around the country, reads books furiously, and absorbs everything she can while getting her certificate in Thanatology from the Art of Dying/1 Spirit. She is flowing back and forth between new growth/ life and blooms/buds at the nursery and grief, dying, death realms at home. All the talk about death helps her feel more alive.
“ Death feeds us ( literally the plants, animals). Dead things give us life. We are death.”
-Rev Olivia Bareham
It is a very sacred and beautiful time in her life.
What is the chapter title of this season of your life called?
*TO BE CONTINUED.. I’m going to write about living a creative life next, STAY TUNED! And Just a reminder- for those who are paid members of Substack community, we have our monthly community check in call THIS SUNDAY, 3/31 at 4pm EST. Can’t wait to be with you in this shared space. ❤️🌹
