Born Dying: Conversations from a Death Cafe

“Imagine attending a meet-up with friends at your local coffee shop. You might catch up on a hobby, discuss parenting, or share life hacks on your work-life balance. Instead, you talk about dying.” –Born Dying: Conversations from a Death Cafe 

Do you talk about death with your loved ones? Would you talk about death with strangers? What do you think happens when we die?

Since May, I’ve been writing periodically for Patheos, a website that explores spiritual and religions trends and topics.

This year, I’ve written on tattoos, interfaith marriage, monks, prayer, and parenthood.

But, the topic that I’ve been wrestling with and writing about most since serving as a hospital chaplain resident in 2006-07, is death. The proposal for my second book is on Christian and Hindu perspectives of death, an issue very close to home, as Fred and I lost our fathers unexpectedly during our first year of marriage.

“Born Dying: Conversations from a Death Cafe” is a glimpse into my life as the “Death Chaplain,” the grief of losing our fathers, and the many questions we’ve considered in our interfaith household.

“Humans, though tremendously diverse, share one common experience: we all die. What’s different, though, is what we believe about what happens after death, and how that belief shapes our lives.”

Head on over to Patheos to read more, and please check out my other pieces:

• Patheos Progressive Channel: Marked by Faith: The Spirituality of Tattoos
• Unequally Yoked: How Christians Get Interfaith Marriage Wrong
• When Monks Say “I Do”: Confessions of a Former Monastic’s Wife
• Why Progressive Christians Should Pray
• Married, Without Children: Parenthood, Re-Imagined

Thanks, as always for reading and sharing!