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Grief touches all of us — but few of us know how to walk with it.
In this episode, we explore how Buddhist monks who walk for peace are quietly changing how we understand death, compassion, and collective healing.

Join us for a deeply human conversation about grief, loss, and the search for peace in a divided world.
You’ll hear how walking — something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other — can become a healing practice for individuals and entire communities.

Whether you’re a death doula, an artist, a caregiver, or simply someone learning to live with loss, this episode offers a calm and honest space to reflect on what it means to walk through grief instead of running from it.

What You’ll Learn:

• Facing Grief Without Fear — how Buddhist wisdom reframes death and loss.
• Walking as a Path to Healing — how the monk’s Peace Walk brings compassion into divided communities.
• Finding Peace in a World That’s Hurting — practical reflections to help carry grief as part of your spiritual growth.

Why Listen / Watch:

• You’re exploring grief, loss, or end-of-life work.
• You’re drawn to Buddhist or mindfulness teachings.
• You want to understand how spiritual practice can meet political and social suffering.
• You believe death conversations can be sacred, creative, and healing.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

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Many families believe hospice is a safe, protected space where difficult end-of-life choices will be guided and supported. But some families discover, often too late, that confusion around medical decisions, documentation, or expectations can pull grief into the legal system.

Welcome to End-of-Life Conversations, where we tackle important topics like death and grief. This episode shares a shocking real-life story where Rachel Waters, after her mother's passing in hospice, faced an indictment for murder. This story highlights unexpected legal challenges after a profound loss, prompting us to reflect on true stories of justice and the complexities of coping with grief as we confront a gross injustice.

If you’ve ever worried about “doing the wrong thing” while trying to care for someone you love, you’re not alone

This isn’t really a story about crime. It’s a story about how unprepared most families are for the legal realities surrounding end-of-life care. Situations like the one involving Rachel Waters reveal gaps in communication, education, and support that many people did not know existed. Understanding these systems ahead of time can replace fear with clarity and help families move through grief with greater confidence and a sense of protection.

We will share:
How hospice actually works for families

Legal risks families don’t know about at the end of life

How to protect yourself and your loved one during hospice care

By the end of this episode, you’ll understand the quiet legal pressures that can appear during end-of-life care—and the small, practical steps that can make an enormous difference for your family’s safety and peace of mind.

These are the kinds of insights most people only learn in a crisis… but you won’t have to.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send a text

Welcome to End-of-Life Conversations Current Events, where we tackle important topics like death and grief.
In this episode, we continue our discussion on noticing things we are grieving and experiencing loss, emphasizing the importance of awareness in our daily lives.
Many of us are carrying a low-level heaviness we can’t quite name.
We move through daily life seeing signs of loss, dead leaves, disappearing birds, climate headlines, and we tell ourselves it’s normal, or that we should be used to it by now. When anxiety shows up, we often assume it’s personal, a mental health issue, or something we need to manage better, instead of asking what we’re responding to.
What if this weight isn’t a failure to cope, but a sign that you’re paying attention? What if grief doesn’t only arrive after a major death, but quietly accumulates through everyday encounters with loss and ecological change?
In this episode, we'll discuss how climate change, environmental loss, and everyday signs of death affect us emotionally, even when we don’t consciously name them. How unacknowledged loss shows up in the body as tension, unease, or burnout rather than sadness.
We'll share somatic and emotional tools for grieving, including simple practices like breathwork, journaling, and shared rituals that help grief move rather than get stuck. We’ll share small, grounded practices you can actually use, not to get rid of grief, but to relate to it differently. These are tools meant for real life, moments you’re already living, not something you have to add on or fix later.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send a text

Many people feel a quiet pressure to “record their story someday,” but they don’t know where to start. There’s a common belief that capturing your life story means writing a memoir, having lots of time, or waiting until the end.

For people living with grief or loss, there’s often regret—I wish I had asked more questions—and fear of doing it wrong while there’s still time.

The problem isn’t that you haven’t recorded your life story—it’s that we’ve been taught to think of legacy as something formal, finished, or perfect. Your story doesn’t need to be complete to be meaningful.

Recording a life story is less about documenting everything and more about creating moments of connection, reflection, and presence—right now.

By the end of this conversation, you’ll have practical, gentle ways to begin—whether you’re recording your own story or helping someone you love share theirs.

These aren’t overwhelming projects or tech-heavy solutions, but small, meaningful steps that can change how stories are remembered and carried forward.

In this conversation, Curt Meinhold, founder of LilyList, shares his journey of creating a platform dedicated to preserving memories and legacies. He reflects on how personal experiences with death have shaped his understanding of life and motivated him to help others capture their stories. The discussion delves into the importance of collaborative storytelling, the challenges of navigating grief, and the societal stigma surrounding death. Curt emphasizes the need for acceptance and self-care while exploring the complexities of life and legacy.

https://lilylist.com

https://siftmusic.com

https://theflux.com

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8382102/

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send us a text

Welcome to End-of-Life Conversations Current Events, where we tackle important topics like death and grief. We aim to provide insights and support for bereavement, loss, and other significant life events, always seeking ways to support one another and our communities.

Why do we react differently to deaths we see on our screens versus those we only read about? In this latest episode, we dive deep into the impact of witnessing tragedy through our phones. It's crucial to recognize how this shapes our emotions and responses. Let's start a conversation: How does seeing these events affect you personally?

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send us a text

You know you should talk to your family about your end-of-life wishes, funeral preferences, or what happens after you're gone—but every time you try to bring it up, the conversation dies before it starts.

It's not that they don't care—it's that no one taught us how to do this without it feeling morbid, uncomfortable, or like we're ruining our time together.

We've been conditioned to avoid these conversations until there's a crisis, so when someone brings them up out of nowhere, they feel heavy and scary.

But when you approach it differently—casually, early, and with intention—it stops being this "big death talk" and becomes just another important conversation, like planning a trip or talking about money.

The discomfort shrinks when you remove the urgency and the secrecy.

In this episode, we'll cover three things:
- How to start a conversation about death naturally – the exact prompts and moments that can make it easy
- What to actually say when people shut down – how to handle resistance with compassion and gentleness.
- How to keep the conversation going over time – why one talk isn't enough, and how to make it ongoing - keeping the conversation going helps to normalize and destigmatize it. And that is our mission here.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a handful of simple, tested approaches that take the weight off these conversations—and maybe even make them something your family actually thanks you for starting.

Because the truth is, the people who love you want to know what matters to you. They just need permission to talk about it.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send us a text

In this new current events episode from End of Life Conversations, the hosts discuss the pervasive theme of grief in contemporary society, particularly focusing on state-induced grief and the loss of connection within communities. They explore the importance of acknowledging collective mourning, the unseen deaths that affect marginalized communities, and the erosion of trust in societal structures. The conversation emphasizes the need for rituals, community support, and finding purpose through service to navigate grief and foster connection.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.

Send us a text

What does it take for a woman to work and thrive as a funeral director? How difficult is it to work in what has long been a male-dominated profession? Are things changing in the funeral industry now that more women are joining the profession?
In this episode, Rev Wakil and Rev Annalouiza speak with Lisa Baue, a third-generation funeral director and founder of Your Funeral Coach. They discuss Lisa's journey in the funeral industry, the impact of death on personal identity, the importance of women in leadership roles within the profession, and the significance of dealing with one's own grief and mourning while supporting others. Lisa shares insights on pre-planning funerals, the challenges faced in the funeral profession, and the future of funeral services with more young female professionals. She shares insights into how these roles, like ministry, often require unpredictable schedules and nights on call, which can impact personal well-being. We explore strategies for professional development and career guidance, emphasizing the importance of support for career women in the funeral industry.

Learn more or purchase her book here: Wake-Up Calls by Lisa Baue.

Funeral Women Lead Foundation

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Subscribers will have access to premium content, special online meet-ups, and subscriber chats.

Support the show

You can find us on SubStack, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and BlueSky. You are also invited to subscribe to support us financially. Anyone who supports us at any level will have access to Premium content, special online meet-ups, and one on one time with Annalouiza or Wakil.

And we would love your feedback and want to hear your stories. You can email us at endoflifeconvo@gmail.com.