Dates: Thursday, September 23, 2021, 7:00 - 8:00 pm ET
Available by: Join by Videoconference Only (learn more about videoconference)
Suggested Love Offering: $ 10.00
Heartwood: An Evening on the Art of Living with the End in Mind
Great masters of many traditions have advised that we can live our lives more fully knowing someday we will die. Rev. Barbara Becker’s memoir Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind reminds us of this cornerstone belief of death literacy.
The term “heartwood” refers to the core of a tree—the part that is no longer living but supports the newer growth rings that surround it. To Barbara, it’s “a reminder to embrace the inseparability of life and death… a message of wholeness.”
Join us for this special virtual conversation with the author and her beloved One Spirit colleagues—Rev. Martha Dewing and Rev. David Wallace— as they navigate the broad questions of the paradoxical marriage of life and death, and delve into the meaningful personal stories Barbara shares in her book. A special performance by music thanatologist and harpist Rev. Catharine DeLong will accompany the evening.
Heartwood is available for sale wherever books are sold.
"In Heartwood, Barbara Becker inspires us to follow our curiosity into a world that is both universal and a source of our uniqueness. And what could be better than that?"
- Gloria Steinem
Facilitators
Rev. Barbara Becker
Barbara Becker is a writer and One Spirit-ordained interfaith minister who has dedicated more than twenty-five years to partnering with human rights advocates around the world in pursuit of peace and interreligious understanding. She has worked with the United Nations, Human Rights First, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, and has participated in a delegation of Zen Peacemakers and Lakota elders in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota. She has sat with hundreds of people at the end of their lives and views each as a teacher.
Rev. David Wallace
Rev. David Wallace recently retired as a dean and senior teacher for One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and is a faculty member of the spiritual direction program at the Rowe Center and an active officiant and spiritual director. He is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and has continued those studies as a lifelong student of the “great books” of philosophy and archetypal psychology. Rev. Wallace offers teaching and retreats at spiritual venues worldwide, and specializes in poetics, contemplative practice, and the wisdom texts of both the Eastern and Western traditions.
Prior to his work in interspiritual ministry and teaching, David had an extensive career in publishing and marketing, as well as award-winning work through the Soho galleries he created in New York City, The Enchanted Forest and After the Rain.
Known for his deep and passionate teaching style, his recent seminars on the Tao Te Ching, the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas and Mary, The Cloud of Unknowing and the Upanishads have drawn a worldwide audience as one of One Spirit’s most popular teachers. He is currently working on a book, and shares a home in the Berkshire Mountains with his partner, senior Kripalu teacher Jurian Hughes, and their beloved dog Smitty.
Rev. Martha Dewing
Rev. Martha Dewing was ordained by One Spirit in 2006. She is currently the One Spirit Chaplain. She has served as a member of the admissions team, coordinator of the mentoring program, and as a second-year deansÕ assistant before becoming a first-year dean. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in New York and abroad and subsequently published and edited ChildrenÕs Video Report, a newsletter about children and media. Martha worked for several years with the Caring Circle, a family bereavement program in Westchester County. She served on the board at MiriamÕs Well, a teaching facility in upstate New York whose mission is to offer transformational experiences that initiate and sustain conscious spiritual evolution toward peaceful coexistence. Her undergraduate degree is from New York University and she holds a masterÕs degree from Harvard University. Of the many spiritual practices that she engages throughout the day, the two primary ones are mantra meditation twice a day, every day, without fail, and a heartfelt practice of gratitude from morning to night.
Rev. Catharine DeLong
Catharine is a certified Contemplative Musician and Music-Thanatologist. With harp and voice she tends to the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of palliative patients who are approaching the end of life. Catharine is the current facilitator for the the New York Open Center’s Art of Dying “Integrative Thanatology” certificate program. She is honored to present workshops; “Introduction to Thanatology” and “Music as Medicine at the End of Life” for the Open Center. She is grateful for the opportunity to both educate, and to be at the bedside of patients and their loved ones in their last days and hours. Her work allows patients and loved-ones to encounter the dying process as a natural passage, and to make meaning of their end of life experience.
If you have questions about registering for this course, please contact One Spirit Learning Alliance by email to info@1spirit.org or call 212-931-6840.