Living Well, Dying Well

Cover Photo Credit: Kim Holl

deepening personal inquiry in death + dying while living well now…

A Multigenerational, Comprehensive & Somatically Sensitive Approach

Living Well – Dying Well is a multigenerational, comprehensive and somatically sensitive program tending conscious end-of-life care, which includes Advanced Care Planning, before and after death care, ecological footprint of dying and death, ceremony …. and more.

The program offers an opportunity for deepening personal inquiry, strengthening family connections and building community support networks, encouraging active participation and informed decision making with dying and death, while living well now. It was developed over six years with input from advisors in anthropology, hospice, nursing and ceremony. The program is available at an accessible rate, with support from the New Horizons for Seniors Program.

Our Facilitators

Penny Allport

A long-time lover of world wisdom traditions and participant in ceremonies honouring the life-death-life cycle from Mexico to Bali, Africa and the Amazon informs Penny’s work as a Life-Cycle Celebrant. Fueled by a deep interest in our potential for being human’s kind, Penny facilitates multi-generational classes and retreats, combining Continuum Movement, Yoga, writing, painting and dream processes, also incorporating the work of mentor Angeles Arrien (1940-2014), Cross Cultural Anthropologist, teacher and author of The Second Half of Life, 8 Gates of Initiation. See www.movingceremonies.com 

Video Credit: Kim Holl – Stories Told on Film

Renate Ringer

Earth walker, star gazer, indigenous rose inhaler, ocean swimmer, wild mushroom forager and a continuing student of nature’s wisdom and the cycle of life & death. Renate’s background includes working in the health field; decades of research projects; managing urban agriculture programs and social enterprise endeavours in the non profit sector. Renate is currently exploring various additional healing arts such as: music, dance, poetry, story telling, herbology, reiki, dreamwork, and spirituality. 


Topics We Cover

For anyone who wishes to engage in conscious care with end of life!

We touch on these topics in the Living Well Dying Well program, and Penny can also offer short interactive engaging presentations on the following topics:

The Ecological Footprint of Death – How has death care changed in the last century? What are the impacts on the earth? With the reality of climate change, making healthy choices can be a living legacy for generations to come. Find out what you can do now for the future of earth and her people.

A Return to Family and Village-Centred Death Care – What happened to family & village-centred death care? How are ordinary people reclaiming this essential and integral part of the cycle of life? How can you and your family take steps to prepare and participate in end-of-life with more presence, awareness and trust? Discover how slowing down to the experience of death can deliver family and friends into the grace and gift of grief. A return to family & village-centred death care
 can liberate and enhance our lives now.

Customized Offerings

Options To Participate:

  • One Hour Introductory Sessions
  • Evening or Afternoon (2-3 Hours)
  • Six-Week On-line
  • In-person programs
  • One Day
  • Two Day/Weekend

Who Might Benefit:

  • Senior’s Facilities, Women’s Groups, Men’s Groups, Faith-Based Groups
  • Holistic Death Care Organizations, Community Centres, Caregivers, Indigenous individuals and communities, Intergenerational Family Groups, Care Homes
  • Outreach for Families and any organization or business who wishes to encourage their partners, employees and volunteers to engage in conscious care with end of life

What Participants Are Saying

Frances Westover

Video Credit: Kim Holl – Stories Told on Film

Denise Abegg

Video Credit: Kim Holl – Stories Told on Film

Photo Credit: Dr. Robin J. Hood

To Inquire

Contact Penny
phone – 250 592 6400
email –  info@centreforearthandspirit.ca

* Custom classes are available for organizations, families and groups

Upcoming Dates

Related Articles

Some Relevant Articles From The Blog On This Topic

That Stuff

That Stuff

“Now you two don’t need to worry, as your father and I have taken care of all of that stuff”, my mother said matter-of-factly to my brother and I. For the first time in many years, my parents, in their late seventies, my only brother and I were alone together in the...

The Ecological Footprint of Death

by Penny Allport "I don’t really care, I’m not going to be here," she said matter of factly. The question we had asked in our Living Well – Dying Well program was - what, if any, plans for the care of your body after death, do you have? As the talking stone passed...

Walk Around the Block

A Walk Around the Block by Penny Allport This summer I had the blessing of returning to the place of my birth in Ontario to celebrate my parent’s 60th wedding anniversary. 170 family and friends filled a community hall my parent’s had actually fundraised to build in...

Attitude of Gratitude

In loving memory of Devine Eldenby Penny AllportWelcome to the hitch’n post, the bitch’n post and the psychiatric unit all in one, I heard a voice call across the busy store I had entered.It was November 1, 1988, when I ducked in off a street in Steveston,...

Green Burial, Brandy and Cheese Curds

On a summer journey home in July to officiate a family wedding near where I was born in Ontario, I spent a day with my Aunt Beryl at her request. At 84, Aunt Beryl wanted to visit the Cemetery where she had pre-purchased a plot many years earlier, in hopes of...

Re-Imagining Death, Befriending Life

Join us:  Thursday, Sept 6, 2018  9:30 am - 12:30 pm Penny Allport and Bill Israel, facilitators of The Centre for Earth & Spirit’s Living Well - Dying Well Program, invite you to re-imagine death and dying as a way of befriending the whole of your life. Through...

Program Success Story

The LIVING WELL, DYING WELL program of the Earth & Spirit Society delivered its second year of workshops in April of 2018 at The Church of Truth.  Twelve courageous participants from all over the CRD and Cowichan attended the four week series focused on...

Part 2: No Fuss, No Funeral, No Service

PART 2 No fuss, No funeral, No Service  by Penny Allport |  Life Cycle Celebrant No Fuss, No Funeral, No Service (please see previous newsletter for Part 1) Penny Allport Grief is a somatic experience, meaning our bodies, neurologically and physically are attuned to...

No fuss, No funeral, No Service

PART 1 No fuss, No funeral, No Service  by Penny Allport |  Life Cycle Celebrant No fuss, no funeral, no service, are words I’ve heard for many years from parents and friends, to others nearing the end of life. Some feel this takes pressure off their loved ones and...