Installation artist Candy Chang turned the side of a dilapidated house in New Orleans into a chalk board for her neighbors to post their wishes for their lives: what they want to do or think or feel or be before they die.

These postings are like the blades of grass that push up through the cracks in sidewalk cement.

Candy received requests from around the world to create similar walls, so she created a kit to help others create walls in their communities.

What would you post?
Before I die I want to…..

Ceremony is everywhere in Bali.

Each morning on a recent trip, I saw women place offerings to the spirits, both high and low, at the entrance to their homes.

Balinese funeral ceremonies are particularly elaborate, with everyone in the village collaborating to send the deceased to the next world.  After the cremation, family members bundle the deceased’s ashes in palm leaves and send them floating down the river to the sea.

The ceremonies continue with another memorial three months after the death.

Balinese society does not shun death but acknowledges that none of us are new. We are part of the life cycle, and death is a natural stage before new life.

“Keep your mind and body busy” was one of 114-year-old Walter Bruening’s tips for a long life.

He saw massive changes over the more than century that was his lifetime.

His conclusion?
“Be good to everybody. Help other other people. The more you do for other people, the more you help yourself. Every day is a good day. Make it that way.”

Sometimes it’s hard to consider what will happen after we die.  What will happen to our children if we are not able to care for them?  What will happen to our pets?

We can circumvent some of those worries by providing guardians and caretakers in advance.

Now pet owners have some new options to consider in pet life care programs or pet retirement homes.Some veterinary schools are providing resources to help assure pet owners that their animals will be cared for.

Have you provided for your pet? If not, now’s the time to learn about your options, such as the Stevenson Companion Animal Life-Care Center, operated by the Veterinary Medicine Department of the Texas A&M University.

Video from KarmaTube

In this Nic Askew interview, Julio Olalla, life coach and transformation agent, speaks about saying thank you to life. Gratitude is indeed a powerful force in healing and  well-being. Keeping a gratitude journal can strengthen your immune system and create a happier you.

What are you thankful for today?

A recent New York Times article speaks of the gift of organ donation and the  lives saved by Julio Garcia, who died of a brain hemorrhage in March 2010.  His body parts live on in seven or eight donor recipients who are living better now because of Mr Garcia’s gift.

What are your ideas about organ donation?  How much do you know about saving lives through this gift?

You can find out more at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.

Planning Your Eulogy

Wall Street Journalist Katherine Rosman points out a trend in eulogies towards humor. While chuckles and grins don’t fit every person or situation, humorous anecdotes in a eulogy can bring the deceased back to life with a warm glow in the hearts of mourners. In that regard, Graham Chapman’s memorial is certainly exceptional.

What would you like said for your eulogy? One funeral director, having witnessed hundreds of eulogies over the years, has pre-recorded his own funeral to avoid unpleasant surprises from family members and friends who might take his funeral ceremony too lightly.

That’s taking planning to the extreme, but by making basic plans for  your final arrangements, you can save your family a great deal of stress and get in a few last words and, if you wish, a few last laughs too.

Each day I make sure to check out the obituaries. They often inspire me to consider the depth of human joy and suffering we each experience over a lifetime. Take the obituary of Theodora Quinby Gauder, a woman who lived past ninety and grew an organic garden way before it became trendy.

I didn’t know Theodora, but it’s clear she cared for others, both as a nurse and as a friend. Her positive attitude shines through in her obituary.  As a member of the Secret Society of Happy People, Theodora encouraged herself and others to celebrate the joy in each day.

Obituaries can be great sources of knowledge. Turns out Theodora was a self-described “immortalist.” I didn’t know what that was, so I looked it up and found that immortalists believe in the immortality of the soul. Those who believe in life extension through cyronics, the deep-freezing of human bodies at death to preserve and revive them in the future, also call themselves immortalists.

Theodora was not that kind of immortalist. As a health professional, she understood how she could help extend the life of others. She donated her body to the University of California, San Francisco.

No matter what you believe about organ donation, about cyronics, about life after death, it’s important to put your beliefs and choices into your end-of-life plans. That way, as Theodora did, you can leave life the way you lived it, aligned with your beliefs and values.

Westerners live in a culture that denies death and dying. Cultural customs that acknowledge and embrace death as a part of life can seem strange to us. The  Famadihana celebrated by the people of Madagascar is an example.

Every five to seven years, based on an astrologer’s calculations, families honor their deceased ancestors by digging up their bones and dancing with them. They believe that the line between the living and the dead  is fluid and permeable and that these rites make their ancestors happy.

It’s not likely that Westerners will dig up and dance with the dead any time soon. However, we may become more open to the idea that death is a natural part of life and therefore prepare for it as we do other rites of passage such as marriage and retirement.

Members of the Navajo Nation share a culture that makes death a taboo subject. A recent New York Times article describes how this poem, written in Navajo and English, has helped start the discussion with Navajo elders about advance directives and wills.

Fear of death stops many people from putting the plans in place for end-of-life that could help themselves and their loved ones in a time of crisis. Although the overwhelming majority of Americans want to die in the comfort their home rather than in an impersonal hospital setting, only 30% of them have completed an advance directive specifying the care they wish to receive if they are unable to speak for themselves.

If you haven’t completed your end-of-life plans, what will it take to get your started?