A Living Funeral is a beautiful cultivated space in which the participant gets to decide their own journey. Brooke makes everyone feel seen and comfortable by explaining each step of the journey clearly and with compassion. The journaling exercises along with the guided meditation allowed me to dissolve any fear I had about the process of dying. I was able to pinpoint where my anxiety was coming from and now I feel more called to make space to look at these areas in my life with intention. Understanding our existence as an experience of living and dying simultaneously is such a gift - one that provides the utmost sense of relief and connection.

- Beth Puttkemery, Smells Like Flowers

To say that it was powerful and transformative doesn’t do it justice. It was raw, vulnerable, messy, and cathartic. I’m going through my own grief journey as well as cycle of death and rebirth, this evening was a beautiful opportunity to bear witness to my own story and also life. It’s hard to put into words what this night was like as it’s quite a personal process and yet, I wanted to share it a bit.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it leading up to it but, I trust and respect Brooke’s work, yet I knew it would be hard. Brooke led us through some beautiful guided meditations as well as some journal exercises and prompts. This helped me move from sadness to a place of openness of possibility.

This event let me sit with what I could do for myself if I knew my end was coming. It also allowed space to unpack what I could ask of my loved ones and share my last wishes with them. We are so illiterate when it comes to death and dying. Let us do it more wisely and consciously.

- vania sukola, psychotherapist

“I Attended a Living Funeral Meditation”

youtube testimonial by Hillary LeBlanc

I was focused on myself, and my own fears (about both life and death.) I came into the ceremony with a sense of time running out, and an urgency to make life mean something. And much to my relief, I left the session with validation of this! This is, in fact, temporary. It’s a gift, and it is not to be squandered. It was validating because I feel a sense of responsibility (Ukraine), and the gift of this reflection on death was to cherish life by living it purposefully. Even if that is risky.

New wisdom I was given in your session:
• Learn to love the questions/the locked rooms.
• The most difficult and frightening things are what we should move towards.
• Our loved ones are our garden; water the seeds of happiness and shine sunlight on them.
• Be a force multiplier. Act for the community.
• There is grace in listening, making people feel seen, and I can honour them by telling their stories; holding it up like a mirror for them to see how beautiful and good they are. Find a way to make people feel seen until I die.

I appreciate that you approach this work through a polytheistic lens. I am intensely interested in the confluence of seemingly disparate religions and cultures, because it helps to reveal what it means to be a human creature on this earth, and that we are foundationally all connected by this common thread. So I admire your approach very much. I could feel the universality in your words. You are a beautiful writer. In general, you seem like such a nourishing, knowledgeable, thoughtful, intuitive and generous goddess, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to spend some time with you!

-Alexandra Keeler, writer
Before your real funeral, you should attend a “living funeral”

I was so moved by the journaling/reflection piece and laying in the quiet of death meditation. I had an experience that I generally only feel when taking mushrooms; that space of having a dialogue about "what does it all mean" and getting answers from somewhere that feels not me but also coming from me and coming quickly with no second-guessing--that's where it took me. I was in communication about how my reluctance around death is not having yet created something big enough or known enough; not wanting the things I have created to be lost without being shared. This "voice" said, “oh honey you'll love death, death is creating all the time”. I went down a really interesting wormhole from there about what the difference between life in a body and life as energy is, and the dialogue truly compared to the kind of experience that usually takes 6 hours and a lot of mushroom nausea! 

I was honestly overwhelmed at the level of depth this meditation took me down… and how much more powerful and how much deeper everything goes in community. Overall it was such an incredible experience. I'm so happy that I trusted myself to sign up despite feeling socially anxious about it. Thank you so much for taking me (and us all) on such an opening journey.

- Michelle Lemay, Analytics Engineer & Writer

It wasn’t until Brooke’s Living Funeral Meditation that I sank into the comtemplation of my own existrnce and what areas of discomfort I had with my own work. In some ways, my art form and past experiences made me comfortable and at ease with the death of others, made me aware that I wanted a green burial where my ashes would be used in a tree planting process but I didn’t often think about the kind of funeral or celebration I’d want when dying, or what it would be to actually pass. This experience and the tender space held by Brooke helped me sink into my senses and feel in my body the eventual stillness I may feel when I fade into another form. This experience helped me realize that the love and acceptance I have for others needs to be given to myself as well. It helped my contemplate how I want to be remembered and the mark I want to leave on the world. I realize through this experience that I want people I love to gather upon my passing, sit in a circle and share stories about how I made them feel loved, seen, and accepted. I didn’t expect to leave this experience with reverance for my own grace and beauty. I didn’t expect to leave with a deeper appreciation for my unique life and all those that pass through it. This was one of the most tender and nurturing experiences I have have given myself. I am deeply grateful for Brooke, the space she held for us, the intention she put into this experience and feeling she has left me with.

- Cait, Floral Preservation Artist, Gentle Decay