17: Death, Grief, and Chickens

I know, I know: Death, Grief and Chickens isn’t, well, sexy. But this week Design Yourself foregoes sexy for a whole lot of getting real. With light hearted humor (hello, chickens!) and a deep well of grace, Sharon opens up about her own observations on the topics of death and grief. This is not a show designed to give you the answers on what’s right or wrong when it comes to these gritty topics. Instead it’s one person’s reflections and observations as she comes to appreciate not just what’s possible in this life, but what’s possible when we honor the full life cycle.

Resources and Links The inspiration for this episodes’ title? Anna Sale’s podcast Death, Sex, and Money, which is all about the big choices and hard questions that are often left out of polite conversation. If you already know the podcast or just find you want to learn a bit more behind its managing editor and host Ms. Sale, I can highly recommend episode 94 of Grace Bonney’s After the Jump where she interviews this podcast hero/childhood friend. Check out Mason Jennings’ song Instrument.

“I want to be an instrument of your love” “I want to live my life a brand new way…”

 Read more about the 5 stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). Sharon’s short meditation on chickens, inspired by a coaching client and fellow chicken lover:

I wake with the first movements of day

Birds call out and I stretch my wings

Dust and worms and bits of green

Clawing and scratching and running towards life

No fence can keep me in

But home I’ll return as the sun sets

What fences will I build?

Which ones will I tear down?

Sharon closes this episode with a reading from The Chicken Chronicles by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and spiritual guide Alice Walker . Her reading is from Chapter 18, “St. Michael.”