The continued evolution of Practices of Living and Dying keep on to meeting the moment.
In these potent and uncertain times, how we live—and how we die—matters more than ever. In this moving video School of Lost Borders guides co-founder Meredith Little and Buddhist priest Cynthia Morrow host a powerful conversation on how the Practices of Living and Dying are evolving to meet this moment. Settle in with a cup of tea and let this moving dialogue invite reflection, resilience, and deeper connection…
Our lives unfold in the space between birth and death. The days keep coming—until they don’t. It’s wise to face our mortality and let that awareness shape how we live, what we choose, and the paths we take.
Yet for many, the topics of living well and dying well rarely surface in daily life. At the School of Lost Borders, the Practices of Living and Dying programs offers space to explore these deep questions—where we don’t just ask them, but let them live within us and work on us over time.
This strand of work began in 2003, co-created by guides Meredith Little and Dr. Scott Eberle, around the time the School’s co-founder Stephen Foster was dying (you can read the full version of that Love Story here). Meredith, the co-founder of the School, had been offering “symbolic death midwifery”; Scott, a hospice physician, had been practicing “physical death midwifery”. Together, they shaped a curriculum that supports participants in engaging their own dying process as a gateway to fuller living.
“Death teaches many good things… It accentuates the cyclical nature of life and death. When we begin to see everything as cyclical, it changes everything.” Meredith Little
Over the years, this curriculum has evolved as other School guides have added their voices to this strand of programs, shaped by their own experiences of life and loss. The programs continue to grow and adapt—responding to shifting cultural landscapes and the ever-changing questions people bring.
At the heart of it all remain two core inquiries:
How do we live, so we may fully become our dying?
&
How do we accept our dying that we may fully embrace our living?
These questions are both timeless and timely. They serve as personal North Stars—guiding each of us to navigate life and death with greater wisdom. And while the answers are deeply individual, they are also shaped by the cultural moment in which we live.
Recently, Meredith Little, Co Founder and School guide, psychotherapist, and Buddhist priest Cynthia Morrow sat down for a powerful conversation on how the Practices of Living and Dying continue to evolve in response to our times. Their 40-minute dialogue explores what is needed now—how meeting our dying can help us meet this very moment.
“When we go deep into the difficult places and open to them… the heart can crack open. And when the heart breaks open like that, it gives us the energy to care for and protect life.” -Cynthia Morrow
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