mynah-bird-death

[mynah-bird-death]

This. This is why I am so So adamant that Family is Family regardless of species with my work. Especially in today's default death denial and separation from the reality of death.

For folks my age (35) and younger losing pets could legitimately be the only experience with death and mourning we have. And since folks my age are noted for having delayed or passed entirely on having human children, for many of us pets fill that emotional niche. Myself included.

[mynah-bird-death]

Y loves!

I have a Patreon! First guided meditation recording dropped today. Just a shortie.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sample-centering-113986721?pr=true&tab=clip

[mynah-bird-death]

Remember my loves, cemeteries aren't just on land. Watery graves have been A Thing for as long as humans have swum.

I find the great lakes terrifying, may i have some cursed knowledge on them?

sure thing!

when you say "great lakes" and "cursed" in the same sentence, we usually think you're just talking about Lake Superior.

the great lakes are huge, sure! combined, they're roughly the size of fucking France.

but Superior is the granddaddy of them all.

the largest of the great lakes in terms of surface area, depth, and overall volume, Lake Superior contains 2,903 cubic miles of water, or 10% of the world's entire surface freshwater supply.

that's enough to cover the entire surface area of North AND South America in a solid foot of ice-cold murkish water, and probably also a bunch of confused sturgeons. yow!

but sturgeons aren't all this lake contains, by any means!

it's also full of corpses.

see, Lake Superior is just SO fucking hugebig and deep (about 1000 feet at its deepest point) that it doesn't warm up very quickly, even in the depths of summer! its northerly location and the amount of time it spends frozen over each year means that this lake reaches an average surface temperature of 46-56 degrees fahrenheit, even in the hottest months.

don't even think about the coldest months.

that's cold enough to kill you dead as a Sim with a deleted pool ladder if you fall in and can't get out! and it's ALSO cold enough that if you do die, your body will just sink into the icy depths, and stay there. you won't rot, and there isn't even anything alive down there that might consider your corpsicle a worthy feast because there's so little oxygen; you're basically just stuck down there in the world's largest meat freezer for the rest of eternity.

but you're in good company! since everyone who dies on the lake and sinks to the bottom is still there, there are an estimated 10,000 corpses lying around on the lakebed right now!

(there are a number of explorable shipwrecks in Superior that are known to still, uh, have crew on board, so to speak. divers are expected to leave them alone and treat their death sites respectfully.)

and that's not even counting the literal thousands of years humans were paddling around on the lakes in pre-colonial times either, so in all honesty that's probably lowballing it.

and that doesn't seem likely to change, anytime soon- as long as the lake exists, those corpses are just going to be stuck down there, waiting around for whatever comes next.

so uh anyway, if the concept of the eternal preservation of your mortal form bothers you, stay AWAY from that lake! and maybe just become a volcano researcher instead, I dunno.

sheesh.

[mynah-bird-death]

First deep dive YouTube episode drops on Tuesday October 1. It's on mortuary cannibalism!!

[mynah-bird-death]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vl6ORYYmoY

YouTube channel launched today!

[mynah-bird-death]

Tumblr! My loves!

https://youtu.be/_vl6ORYYmoY?si=21cYsPChdAGUnfwf

I started a YouTube channel! Next week launches our first deep dive with the topic of mortuary cannibalism.

[mynah-bird-death]

"Because Death is as Sacred as Birth" - The Death Midwife

This quote resonated with my soul's love vibration. So often, birth is reversed and celebrated. I believe death should also be honored. Meaning, it is the beginning of new dew drops falling from a lotus flower. And, that death is really:

• Pure love

• Pure forgiveness

• The end of pain

• Reunion with Spirit

• Meeting with Light

And, nothing to be fearful about. Couldn't be happier in end-of-life care

[mynah-bird-death]

I was walking through a beautiful cemetery while on vacation over labor day weekend with my wife and our mutual friend. I was excitedly being a nerd and information dumping about memorial art and epitaphs, like ya do.

I will point out I am the only death nerd in this group and our mutual friend arranged stopping at this cemetery specifically for me. But I digress.

My wife looked up and offhandedly commented "I wish there were happy stories sometimes, ya know?"

Without thinking I responded:

"The stories are only tragedies if death is the enemy."

For example family graves. Especially older ones from the time before vaccines for whooping cough or influenza or even chicken pox. You see the graves of so many children who were carried off by what were these common childhood diseases.

Each child's grave is a testament to how loved and wanted they were. And their parents made sure that people would know their baby had been here, had lived, had been so very loved and remained loved.

To me the graves of parents near those children? Are a monument to grief and loss yes, but also the end of a mother missing her child. It's the entire family together in a way they couldn't be in life, where nothing can meaningfully separate them again. It's a forever reunion.

Regardless of any belief in any sort of afterlife, their names or at least the evidence of their existence, is linked together etched in stone. And that is a happy story.

[mynah-bird-death]

Hey Tumblr, I know advertising here is doomed to fail. I understand this site, I've been here for years. So I'm not going to push services here much.

However I do need to make sure you know that I offer:

-Personalized guided meditation recordings

-Public speaking engagements

-death doula work for companion animals

-help talking to your children about death

My rates are extremely reasonable and 9 times out of 10 my prices are flexible based on your income and means.

Do you have somewhere in the Continental United States you'd like to have me speak? Do you want a guided meditation designed for your own needs (pain management, stress, sleep, general relaxation)? Reach out! I'm happy to work with you my loves.

[mynah-bird-death]

Do you have a pacemaker? Does your loved one?

Did you know that you can have your pacemaker donated to a dog? You can! Dogs and humans use the same pacemakers, and while a used pacemaker cannot be reimplanted into a different person, they can be implanted into a dog in need.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/12/08/dogs-can-use-donated-pacemakers-from-humans-fact-check/71851094007/

If you are an animal lover relying on this technology it may be worth it for you to add a provision to your will, advanced directive, and death plan gifting your no longer needed pacemaker to a participating animal hospital upon your death. The easiest way to do is to reach out to your nearest veterinary college and ask them how best to go about it.

Donated pacemakers can mean the difference between being able to afford the life saving veterinary care, and having to say goodbye to a beloved companion. I know it would for me if one of my dogs shows signs of needing one.

Remember my loves, your post mortum gifts can benefit more than just humans.

[mynah-bird-death]

Someone always leaves first, my loves. Always. The fact that life ends and love doesn't is deeply beautiful and so So human.

[mynah-bird-death]

Death and Love

Before I was a death doula I was (and still am) a certified sex and relationship coach. One of the things that I noticed in both trainings was that neither addressed the elephant in the room of physical love in the face of a terminal diagnosis.

My loves, those who are dying are not inherently sexless, and those who love them are not automatically caregivers instead of partners. This is normal and I will fight to climb this hill until someone buries me under it.

There is Nothing to be ashamed or hesitant about with still being attracted to any partners you may have. Nor does a terminal diagnosis mean you automatically need to toss your own desires and sexual needs aside. You're dying, not dead yet. You're allowed to Live.

You, my darling and exhausted partner, are allowed to want to remain your beloved's Partner not their nurse. You are allowed to demand care for your own needs. You are allowed to talk to your dying partner about dates, sex, and intimacy. You are Allowed, nay Encouraged (by me if no one else) to set aside time to be Partners, not dying and caregiver.

It is so so easy to forgo intimacy in the face of death. But, you don't have to my loves. I promise.

[mynah-bird-death]

Y'all...

[mynah-bird-death]

The Daughter has a moment of vague horror when she remembers that her mom met her dad when she was already 4, and no one could ever explain where her bicolor eyes came from.

to briefly revisit my decade old Labyrinth hyperfixation, I think it would be neat if Sarah grows up, has a teenage daughter who finds her book and while in a pissy mood wishes goblins would take her mother away

just imagining Sarah freaking the fuck out, taking the extremely limited amount of time she knows she has left to load up her confused daughter with all of the iron jewellery she never usually takes off, peppering her with instructions not to eat ANY of the food and vague warnings about illusions in the walls

and then suddenly before she knows it her mother is just gone, and she's being told by a strange glittery man that she must begin her own journey through the Labyrinth to find her mother

the funniest part however would be Jareth finishing his spiel to the daughter and returning to his castle to properly greet his new hostage with no fucking clue who he just snatched, and finds to his surprise and horror a Too Old For This Shit Sarah absolutely rampaging through the halls threatening to tear down his entire world all over again if he doesn't take her back to her daughter right the fuck now

I can't decide which is funnier, the tale ending with Jareth lobbing Sarah at her daughter before she even gets one foot into the Labyrinth and fucks them off home immediately, or the daughter completing her shockingly easy journey through the Labyrinth only to find her mother sitting in the king's throne with a dazed Jareth under her heel and terrified goblins waiting on her hand and foot

[mynah-bird-death]

Japanese legend: you have the face of who you loved most in a past life

[mynah-bird-death]

Let's talk about this loves.

The whole *point* of Arlington was to allow for the civil war dead to be buried with dignity, regardless of which side they fought for. It was founded on the idea that everyone buried there sacrificed for their country regardless of political affiliation.

Agree with that stance or not, and that is very much a personal choice and I will not tell you how to feel about it, that *is* the purpose of Arlington national cemetery. For a former President to not understand nor respect that? That my loves is deeply problematic. Independent of how I feel about the man in general, or his political affiliation, death is apolitical. Death comes for us all.

To not even view what I argue is the most hallowed ground in the country as something above your campaign? Is disgusting. It is disrespectful to every single person buried or entombed there. Whether the individual would have agreed or not is not the point.

The individual is not the point of Arlington. It never has been.

The tomb of the unknown soldier exists to remind us that it is never about the individual. It is about honoring the collective sacrifice.

The former president dishonored our collective dead for his own personal gain. That is why people are upset about this, even in the face of so many other very pressing issues.

Arlington National Cemetery is not there for political campaign ads. Most people don’t go there for that and don’t want to see that when they do. Trump put out a TikTok video and dozens of campaign videos and photos.

His staff got into an altercation with an official at Arlington National Cemetery so they could take this ridiculous grinning thumbs up photo literally on the graves of dead soldiers.

When are his supporters going to get it? This man is a fraud.