Death Actually Is All Around

The title is supposed to be a take on the Love Actually line that ‘Love actually is all around’ but it turned out to sound somewhat darker than I intended. It’s been a very long bank holiday weekend for me as I took off Thursday and Friday for our engagement party preparations. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know I spent two days preparing, one day hosting, half a day clearing up and then ever since you’ve been able to find me snoozing in a hammock. When I’ve not been high up in the sky in a hot air balloon that is. It’s been very enjoyable but also eventful that’s for certain!

Up, up and away!

In between snoozing in my hammock, I’ve been reading the book From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty. You may be aware that I adore pretty much everything Caitlin does and hugely look up and admire her. Caitlin is an American mortician who owns her own funeral home, she also writes books and has a YouTube channel where you can watch her talk about different subjects on the theme of death. I have found myself emulating her enthusiasm and functionally morbid ways when talking to people myself about death.

I finished the above named book today and I came to the following passage I’d like to share because it perfectly describes how I feel about my work.

I have met quite a few people this weekend who didn’t know what I did for work and when they found out there was, as always, a huge mix of reactions. I think my favourite was ‘oh I thought you worked with animals!’. It seems to be a big divide between those who are interested and those who are repulsed, I would say more people are interested and I’m still a bit taken aback when people are incessant that I don’t speak about my job in front of them at all.

Sadly, I see their need for me to not speak of my work as a complete denial of what is inevitable. I spent a while thinking everyone would be better off if they thought exactly like me but that was foolish and I’ve now come round to the idea that the key is the acceptance part described in that passage. We don’t have to like the fact that we will die one day, but as long as we can acknowledge and accept that it will happen we are in a much healthier place. Acceptance will lead to the necessary conversations to make the process easier for everyone. If I can help progress this way of thinking in any way I can then I will.

I’m back at work tomorrow after five days out and I’m a little apprehensive as always when I’ve had time off. I wonder what I’ve missed and who we’ve had admitted. I hope I can get up early and have a straightforward start beginning with my cycle in. My anxiety brain will go through it all which means I might not sleep much tonight even if I did get up at 4am to climb into a wicker basket and take off into the sky this morning. I hope you’ve all had a relaxing weekend and thank you for reading. I will update later in the week about what’s been going on at the mortuary.

MG x