The Healing Partnerships​
Linda Urban
Certified End-of-Life Planner and Sacred Passage Doula
Blog
The Heart Always Remembers . . .
February 14, 2022
We are here to live a full life, however short or long that may be. One's human presence never leaves one unaffected as we participate in shaping our world. The cup of kindness that we offer another always comes back to us, often in the most unexpected ways.
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Valentine's Day offers an opportunity to reflect on some of those sweet memories of kindnesses received in one's life. It also invites us to give intention as to how we can live our one life more consciously, more lovingly. Find ways to offer a daily kindness to another, whether by an expression, a word, a gesture, an action thus deepening your capacity to give and to receive love. We are all called to love -- it is what relationship is all about.
None of us are given advance notice of the date or time of our death but through end-of-life planning we give ourselves the opportunity to have that internal dialogue about what matters most to us in the here and now. The End of Life Doula assists you in looking more closely not only at what your wishes are for end-of-life but also provides a safe space in which you can examine what makes your life worth living now. This creates an opportunity for making more meaningful, conscious choices in present time.
Gifting Others Through Gifting Yourself
January 1, 2022
An ending -- a beginning. In the silence of those moments between 2021 and 2022 we transition from one state of awareness/consciousness to another.
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In living this one precious life, how do I live well with myself that I may live well and in harmony with all my relations? Can I make a shift this year from the indoctrination that the mind tells the heart what to do? In ancient traditions, the heart told the mind what to do - - it was then the mind's job to discover ways to create what the heart was telling it.
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As we continue our earthly journey this year, let us first gift ourselves by unwrapping our own qualities of BE-ING the peace, kindness, forgiveness, compassion and love which lives in our heart. Coming from our hearts, we then can extend an invitation to our minds to create unique personal and communal ways of DOING for others..
Let's "gift" ourselves and each other with living more consciously from our hearts in 2022.
Winter Solstice: Trusting in Life's Cycles
December 21, 2021
"Source of all blessings, you bless us with change. In the seasons of the year -- from snow to greening, flowering, fruiting and harvest. In the seasons of life -- from childhood to youth, full of ripeness and changing. All the ways things keep changing. May I welcome change as a sacred opportunity to go and savor each unrepeatable moment in its fleetingness -- what is beyond change. Source of all blessings, you bless us with departures for they are a necessary part of our journey, necessary for the arriving. May I always be ready to take leave, always aware that every arrival is a prelude to departure, every birth a step towards dying, and may I thus taste the blessings of life by being fully present where I am." ~Brother Dvid Steindl-Rast
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On this day we mark the ending of an old era and the beginning of a new cycle; the Solstice initiates a new season. These days of less sunlight have offered an opportunity for more contemplative time, more looking deeply to see what can only be seen in the dark. As we celebrate the return to longer daylight, let us remember to honor darkness for the stillness, maturation and inner strength it brings to our lives.
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Be Still. Bask in the mystery of life and its cycles. Let us all walk, in darkness and in light, in kindness and gentleness with ourselves and with one another.
Welcome t​o The Healing Partnerships
November 4, 2021
The end-of-life journey does not have to be made alone. Just as a birth midwife companions one into this life, a death midwife provides comfort, guidance and companioning through the ending of this life and the beginning of the next. Guidance and support are also offered to those who love and care for you.
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I believe, as stated by Ram Dass, that "we're all just walking each other home" and in that process we have the opportunity to tend to each other, thus creating experiences of healing for ourselves and for each other.
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It is my intention to have this blog serve as a resource for expanding on the services that I offer.