What does the quotation “Death ends a life but not a relationship.” really mean? For the past year, I have been guiding small groups of people to explore that question during Continuing Loving Bonds Story Sharing Circles. The circles will begin again in January 2026. Click here for details.
One reason I began facilitating Story Sharing Circles is because – while I was writing my memoir – I came across compelling research showing two things: First, there are many spiritual and tangible practices for continuing bonds. Second, people who engage in these practices tend to experience resilient grief trajectories with emotional growth, spiritual growth, and recovering or re-discovering health, purpose, meaning and joy.
With the help of my memoir I am bringing people together to explore these practices for Continuing Loving Bonds. My Story Sharing Circles are an interweaving of Narrative Therapy, Community Education and Qualitative Research.
Participants are peer counsellors, co-learners and co-researchers. We gain emotional support and insight by sharing our stories of our life experiences and listening to others’ stories of their life experiences. We develop skills and useful practices by applying what we are learning to our own lives.
I presented a poster about this research at the Hospice and Palliative Care Association National Conference in Nanaimo, BC October 22-25, 2025.
My poster covers the past year of hosting 40 small-group, online Continuing Loving Bonds Story-Sharing Circles. A total of 44 people participated. An average of 6 to 10 people attended each session.
We qualitatively harvested our shared wisdom by co-creating poetry, art, videos, and group essays. Here is a link to some of our art and here are a few of the themes that emerged, along with excerpts from our group essays.
Grief is love ripped apart: “Our heavy hearts falling to pieces… drowning in the darkness of tearful nightmares…losing faith… watching helplessly as our loved one, the life we shared and even our own lives are erased and dissolved into invisibility.”
We not alone: “Whether we know it at the time or not, we are lifted up by love every step of the way. Even when absolutely everything is completely turned upside down and inside out, we are surrounded by unconditional love.”
Love is our compass for navigating grief: “When someone we love dies, our loving compass is thrown completely off course. ‘Where are you? Where am I?’ Navigating our grief with the help of our loving compass requires attention, intention, energy and time.”
Love is spiritual gravity: “In the centre of grief’s impenetrable darkness – just beyond the bad news, twisted complexities, and future fears – a fire burns. In a ring around that hopeful fire, everyone and everything you love is reaching, reaching, reaching to pull, pull, and pull you some more toward your new orbit.“
Our spiritual experiences are real: “When family and friends affirm that they also sense the presence of our loved one, there is a softening and lightening of grief that feels comforting and empowering.”
We can, we do and we will re-orbit, re-balance and re-calibrate our lives: “The choice to change what is impossible into possibilities for renewed meanings and purposes is a hero’s journey.”
The web of life includes the web of death: “Our webs of spiritual and tangible interconnections are continually spun and woven by good luck and joy, simultaneously damaged and broken by misfortune and suffering, constantly repaired and regenerated by love and compassion. After someone we love dies, the repairing, rebuilding and reweaving goes on. The evidence is in the synchronicities, signs, messages, dreams, visions and so much more. Perceiving and sensing this mysterious invisible energy requires attention and space for noticing what is unfolding.”
By gathering in Story Sharing Circles as peer counsellors, co-learners and co-researchers, we are contributing to a societal shift away from denying and fearing death to embracing death awareness and choice in end-of-life, death care and bereavement. Continuing loving bonds is one of these choices.
With the help of my book, I am travelling the world virtually and in person sharing my story and listening to others’ stories about Continuing Loving Bonds.
I am an ordinary person who became extraordinarily special and magical by receiving the greatest gift there ever was which is simply to love and be loved in return. Most people in the world have also become extraordinary by fulfilling the main purpose of life: Cultivating unconditionally loving relationships with one or more family members, friends, pets, and the more-than-human wild beings in nature. Some of us have even found intimate love with a soulmate.
The outcome of deep love is deep grief. My mission is to help you transform your deep grief back into the deep love it has always been through a well researched but little known set of practices called Continuing Loving Bonds. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you will subscribe to my blog by leaving your email below.
And, you can click here for more information about how to sign up for 1, 2, 3, 4, or all 5 Continuing Loving Bonds Story Sharing Circles on Thursdays Oct 30 to Nov 27, 2025.
CONTINUING LOVING BONDS 