You're Going to Die

Whatever path you choose maybe just enjoy the walk?????? #RobertFrost #roughdraft

In the great room of a whole lifetime, don’t let the elephant stand unspoken. I often tell people, in the wake of my mother’s death, in the yawning chasm of years gone quiet after her memorial, when no one, no family or friends, gathered again to say her name, You're Going to Die was born out of my own need to share the story of her life & death, to have my grief witnessed, to get and give what my mom, what I, what we as community, deserve: ... A place to source this shared inevitably, our eventual death, for a deeper, richer, more meaningful ALIVENESS. And to show each other how we will hold and honor one another after we die, in continuous relationship as active ancestors with our rightful place in a living conversation. Check out You're Going to Die's newest addition to the active spaces we’re committed to for engaging with our shared mortality - YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: THE PODCAST. Get at it here: http://www.yg2d.com/thepodcast Or find it via your favorite podcast app. Take a listen, share with your community & join our efforts to name the great elephant! = !!!

Grief Is a Thing That Holds Our Hand??? Oh man the words gift-wrapped in the newest episode of You're Going to Die: The Podcast with the current Poet Laureate of Oregon Anis Mojgani - the crisp alive articulations of a poet speaking to the beauty/power/need of grief, unpacking grief with writing, & cradling loss without letting it debilitate us. Also, in this episode...... ...listen to Ned Buskirk talk about what it's like to watch a Danish fútbol player almost die in the middle of a game on international television. ...hangout in Anis' backyard for this episode's "peace pocket," offering you access to the precious present moment through the shared experience of someone else's. ...and find out what producer Nick Jaina thinks about ghosts & how you can share your whispered ghost stories with us & our podcast listeners. CHECK IT OUT EVERYWHERE YOU LISTEN TO PODCASTS & check the comments for links!

Suffering is a misunderstanding. [...] It exists It’s real. I can call it a misunderstanding, but I can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist, or will ever cease to exist. Suffering is the condition on which we live. And when it comes, you know it. You know it as the truth. Of course it’s right to cure diseases, to prevent hunger & injustice, as the social organism does. But no society can change the nature of existence. We can’t prevent suffering. This pain & that pain, yes, but... not Pain. A society can only relieve social suffering, unnecessary suffering. The rest remains. The root, the reality. All of us here are going to know grief; if we live fifty years, we’ll have known pain for fifty years And yet, I wonder if it isn’t all a misunderstanding this grasping after happiness, this fear of pain If instead of fearing it & running from it, one could get through it, go beyond it. There is something beyond it. It’s the self that suffers, & there’s a place where the selfceases. I don’t know how to say it. But I believe that the reality the truth that I recognize in suffering as I don’t in comfort & happiness that the reality of pain is not pain. If you can get through it. If you can endure it all the way. - Ursula K. Le Guin Death, heartbreak, pain, suffering... it's a part of our past, our future & deep in the midst of life today. And while I think I need to simultaneously practice balancing all of the hurt with engagement in joy & embodying lightness whenever I can, the hardest parts of life are closer than we sometimes admit. We may as well acknowledge & source them to inspire our richer, deeper, vaster life, so while we're alive we can show up as fully & completely as we possibly can... for ourselves, but maybe, & most importantly, for one another. [Artwork collab with Hey Leon Media!]

TONIGHT! Our last online open mic of the summer. REGISTER FOR FREE NOW: https://bit.ly/3vykF1S... You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes... an Online Open Mic & Community Listening Space w/Ned Buskirk, the You're Going to Die team, & music from John Elliott! VIRTUAL DOORS @ 6:30pm PACIFIC SHOW STARTS @ 7pm PACIFIC Join us for the communal offering to gather together online, to witness and be witnessed, to embrace our shared mortality, to grieve, bereave and honor what we’ve lost and love while all the while making room for simply being ALIVE. REGISTER FOR FREE NOW: https://bit.ly/3vykF1S