What does it mean to be prepared for the last part of our lives?One of the many lessons author and end-of-life nurse coach Janet Booth learned at the bedside of dying people is how painful it is to come unprepared to the end of life, whether it is our own or that of our loved ones. Much of the suffering we experience seems to come from our unfamiliarity with the journey at end of life and our not knowing how to prepare for it. So there is a need for a different kind of conversation about serious illness and dying in our country. Nurses are trusted professionals who are present with people through all of life's transitions. How might they take more leadership in these conversations?The purpose of this handbook is to provide nurses, coaches, and other health care professionals with opportunities for reflection and inspiration in their work. As nurses and health care professionals, many of us have seen firsthand that the process of navigating serious illness and death within our complex health care system is often confusing, isolating, crisis-driven, and dis-heartening.What outcomes might be possible if instead: * we reimagined the end of life as a vital, purposeful stage of human development? * practices of healing - forgiveness, gratitude, and letting go - became essential parts of our care plans? * wisdom instead of fear informed our challenging decision points? * we prepared for death in order to live more fully the time that we have? * the hard work of caregiving was sustainable and meaningful for both family and professional caregivers?In this book you will find fresh ideas, tools, and reflective practices that encourage you to explore your personal beliefs and values about aging, advanced illness, and dying. It is intended to inspire you to reimagine the end of life as a vital part of how we become fully human - a time of life that holds value, meaning, and purpose.

In this inspirational book, beloved broadcast journalist Jane Pauley helps people in the middle of their lives successfully navigate a“reinvention” phase and build a positive, powerful future. IN 2014, EVERY BABY BOOMER WILL HAVE REACHED THE MILESTONE AGE OF FIFTY. FOR MOST, IT’S NOT AN END BUT THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW. This is the awakening of a generation to the opportunities that lie ahead. Research has shown that people in their fifties are more vital now than they were only ten years ago. They’re saying, “I’m game, I’m up for it, I want to do more.” Jane Pauley, one of America’s most beloved and trusted broadcast journalists, gives voice to the opportunities of her generation—and the next one too—offering humor and insight about the journey forward. Your Life Calling is a fresh look at ideas that have been simmering since boomers first entered midlife with a different perspective on the future than any generation before: that there was more to come—and perhaps the best of all. Jane is not an advice giver but a storyteller. Here she tells her own and introduces readers to the fascinating people she has featured on her award-winning Today show segment, Life Reimagined Today. You’ll meet Betsy McCarthy, who traded in her executive briefcase for knitting needles; Gid Pool, who launched a career as a stand-up comic; Richard Rittmaster, who joined the National Guard Chaplain Corps; Trudy Lundgren, who took her home on the road in an RV; Paulie Gee, who opened a successful pizzeria in Brooklyn; and many more. Their stories are delightful, compelling, and inspiring for anyone asking “What am I going to do with my supersized life?”

'Wonderful, thoughtful, practical' - Cariad Lloyd, Griefcast 'Encouraging and inspiring' - Dr Kathryn Mannix, author of Amazon bestseller With the End in Mind End-of-life doula Anna Lyons and funeral director Louise Winter have joined forces to share a collection of the heartbreaking, surprising and uplifting stories of the ordinary and extraordinary lives they encounter every single day. From working with the living, the dying, the dead and the grieving, Anna and Louise reveal the lessons they've learned about life, death, love and loss. Together they've created a profound but practical guide to rethinking the one thing that's guaranteed to happen to us all. We are all going to die, and that's ok. Let's talk about it. This is a book about life and living, as much as it's a book about death and dying. It's a reflection on the beauties, blessings and tragedies of life, the exquisite agony and ecstasy of being alive, and the fragility of everything we hold dear. It's as simple and as complicated as that.

"It's happening this second. Scientists are re-imagining and re-engineering the world forever. With brutal honesty and engaging story-telling, Michael Guillen gives us a clear-eyed look at a future that is already here. Consider this unsettling, brilliantly written, must-read book your official wake up call." -- ERIC METAXAS, #1 national bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy "Michael Guillen has tackled an important subject in The End of Life as We Know It... This book is a sobering look at where we could be headed. A fascinating read." -- DAVID LIMBAUGH, bestselling author of Jesus is Risen and The True Jesus In all aspects of life, humans are crossing lines of no return. Modern science is leading us into vast uncharted territory—far beyond the invention of nuclear weapons or taking us to the moon.Today, in labs all over the world, scientists are performing experiments that threaten to fundamentally alter the practical character and ethical color of our everyday lives. In The End of Life as We Know It: Ominous News from the Frontiers of Science, bestselling author and Emmy award winning science journalist Michael Guillen takes a penetrating look at how the scientific community is pushing the boundaries of morality, including: • Scientists who detached the head of a Russian man from his crippled, diseased body, and stitching it onto a healthy new donated body. • Fertility experiments aimed at allowing designer babies to be conceived with the DNA from three or more biological parents. • The unprecedented politicization of science – for example, in the global discussion about climate change that is pitting “deniers” against “alarmists” and inspiring Draconian legislation, censorship, and legal prosecutions. • The integration of Artificial Intelligence into communications and the economy. The End of Life as We Know Ittakes us into labratories and boardrooms where these troubling advances are taking place and asks the question no scientists seem to be asking: What does this mean for the future of humanity? PREVIOUS PRAISE FOR MICHAEL GUILLEN: “Guillen succeeds triumphantly…He writes with extraordinary grace and clarity.” — CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, The New York Times “Guillen knows how to tell a story.” — Wall Street Journal “Michael Guillen is ‘Winsomely brilliant.’” — ERIC METAXAS, #1 national bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy “Michael Guillen bridges the seeming gap between science and faith better than anyone I know.” — CAL THOMAS, Syndicated and USA Today columnist/Fox News contributor

Honor your loved ones and the earth by choosing practical, spiritual, and eco-friendly after-death care Natural, legal, and innovative after-death care options are transforming the paradigm of the existing funeral industry, helping families and communities recover their instinctive capacity to care for a loved one after death and do so in creative and healing ways. Reimagining Death offers stories and guidance for home funeral vigils, advance after-death care directives, green burials, and conscious dying. When we bring art and beauty, meaningful ritual, and joy to ease our loss and sorrow, we are greening the gateway of death and returning home to ourselves, to the wisdom of our bodies, and to the earth.

The 6th Global Conference: Making Sense of Dying and Death held in Salzburg, Austria in October and November, 2008 is a component of the Inter-Disciplinary.Net's Probing the Boundaries project. The project's purpose is to create working 'encounter' groups between people of differing perspectives, disciplines, professions, vocations and contexts.A

A practical guide to successfully navigating big life changes faced during middle age and later. Are you at a point in your life where you're asking, “What’s next?” You’ve finished one chapter and you have yet to write the next one. Many of us face these transitions at midlife, but they can happen at any point. It’s a time full of enormous potential, and it defines a whole new phase of life. It’s called Life Reimagined. Here is your map to guide you in this new life phase. You can use the powerful practices and insights to help you uncover your own special gifts, connect with people who can support you, and explore new directions. You’ll be inspired by meeting ordinary people who have reimagined their lives in extraordinary ways. You’ll also read the stories of pioneers of the Life Reimagined movement such as Jane Pauley, James Brown, and Emilio Estefan. They show us that this journey of discovery can help us find fulfillment in surprising new places. One of the profound truths that underlies this book is the liberating notion that each of us is “an experiment of one,” free to find our own path in this new phase of our lives. No old rules, no outdated societal norms, no boundaries of convention or expectation. Let Life Reimagined help you discover your new life possibilities! Winner of the 2014 Silver Nautilus Award