Sean Jeung, hospice and hospital chaplain, is a pioneer in demystifying and destigmatizing end-of-life and death and dying. Her words touch and inspire individuals; they make people pause and they make people think.
I'm excited this week to introduce another new visitor, my friend and producer Ben LeRoy. It's a 26 minute conversation about how to be present for family and friends who are in a Hospice experience. This episode is also available on Youtube . Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This 12 minute episode explores the place hindsight can have in our lives when we are processing loss. Those things we wish we’d done or not done and what we do with that awareness. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
In this episode I am recalling an exquisite moment of beauty and grace in the middle of the worst possible nightmare. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This is an exciting episode for me because it will also be published on You Tube. Shelby joined me to talk specifically about Medical Aid in Dying, referred to here as MAID. What it can do for a person's peace of mind and what the process of bringing a family on board can look like. The right to die is something I feel deeply passionate about and something I am very comfortable talking about. I am excited to share that with someone who is still actively working as a death doula. Thank you for li...
Today we dive a little more deeply into that big black cauldron of stuff called grief. I've had people request that I speak more about my work as a grief counselor. It isn't something that can be covered all at once so we'll put our toes in the water and see how it feels. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
Today I'm talking a bit more about how animals respond to us when we are grieving and how beneficial it can be to align with one when we are sad. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This 40 minute episode welcomes special guest, Akaljeet Khalsa, who joins me to talk about her work as a Life Coach and Death Doula, how she came to the work, what it looks like and what she does. We explore the three main components of her work being: Planning, Active Death Care and After Death Care. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This piece came as a result of feedback from listeners that not all deaths are like my mom’s. I already knew that, but hadn’t written about it. Today, I do. Not all death is graceful. Dying can sometimes bring the very worst of who we are out into the open. Caring for someone when they are at their worst can be a challenge. If they are someone we love, even loving them can be hard. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or fo...
This relatively short episode is an experience I had very early in my work as a hospital chaplain. It is about the honor of sitting with this gentleman. And how a brief sighting the night before helped set the groundwork. I was not then and I am not now ever very surprised by the way things seem to unfold. I have had very good teachers. Some of them in class rooms and some of them in hospital rooms. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get y...
‘Grannie’ was 100 years old. I never saw her out of bed so I don’t know if she was short or tall, lean or heavy. She had a cat who loved her fiercely and all of us knew that cat was unpredictable and cruel in her punishment if she thought you were trying to do something to Grannie. The cat’s name was Precious and I remember how Grannie smiled when I questioned the choice of names after the first time Precious turned her claws on me. It was a beautiful thing to behold the way Precious would tend ...
There are always waves in end of life work. In hospice work, we know going in, that someone is going to die. But not everyone understands what that really looks like. Sometimes, people think they want to work in hospice but the emotional costs turn out to be too high. I guess I was lucky. I came to it because it had come to me in the most magical way when I was given the gift of bearing witness to my mom’s death in 2000. As a result I know I came to hospice with an incredibly high bar for what i...
If there is magic in the time we spend with those who are dying, it is in the listening. It is in the revelations and the epiphanies and the secrets they may tell us. It is in the way their lives spiral inward to reveal the truest beauty in the smallest detail of how we show our love. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
Where and why I hide. Not wanting to assume that this applies to anyone else, I will just own it right now. This is about me. Maybe it's about you too. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
Four minutes. Four minutes to think about new beginnings, family traditions, and resolutions. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
Grief and Loss do not take days off. Death comes without regard to what day it is or what the day might mean to us and Christmas is no exception. This is a short 7minute episode speaking to all of us as a way to help hold the light steady for those whose lights have been temporarily diminished. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com....
On November 26th, if you listened to that episode, you met Gabriel. Today, you will get an inside-behind-the-scenes glimpse into his mom, (a 26 year old mother of 3 boys) after she made one of the hardest decisions of her life and had the youngest of them cremated after his death. And just a couple of other details about that time in her life that were not included in Gabriels Wings..... Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts...
I have found very little in my life that has taught me as much or taught me as well what it is I believe than sitting with those who are dying. What we believe in, where we hold our faith, how we manifest surviving loss, are all, in my opinion, layers of how we grow and expand our humanness. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This episode describes the fist grief support group I ever led and the impact it has had on my life. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This story is sweet and tender. It is beautiful in its sadness. It is a memory I will carry forever. With grateful grace and humility. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
This is the final piece to the story I started 3 weeks ago. It wraps all those pieces together around what happened to keep me home when we had a 3 week road trip all planned out and how the world brings what we need and gives us what we didn't know we wanted. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
I decided to slip this in as soon as I could. It interrupts the final episode of the saga about my recent personal life but I felt it was important to try to offer these few words to those who might be grieving as we enter the next few months. The possible landmines that lie waiting don't have to catch us off guard. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
After recording the episode published on Oct 29th about resiliency, I stayed in the closet and recorded todays episode. There were so many things happening bam bam bam in our lives and it just felt necessary to continue the train of thought. I am already composing next weeks episode as a sequel to this and then I promise I'll be done. We'll get back to things that are not so personal to my life. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your ...
Todays 15 minute episode looks at the desire we often have to reclaim the life we were living before some event took us sideways through the river (and then through the woods) while also opening the idea that it can sometimes be just one more way we prolong the suffering when something uninvited and unwanted falls from the sky. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com....
In this weeks episode, I talk about the connection between pushing away those things we don't want actually making them grow. I often say in my work with those who grieve, it's in the 'againstness' to what is, to what has come, that we suffer the most. It's a lot to ask someone who has been assaulted by loss to ever believe they can make friends with what has happened. But without that acceptance, that welcoming, the suffering will continue. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. ...
This short 7 minute episode recounts the recent moment when I realized I do not need to carry all the details of my experience of someone's story as much as I need to carry the gift their story left me with. I don't need to remember names, dates and places so much as needing to remember what the experience may have taught me. But in learning this, I was momentarily caught off guard by a feeling of being inadequate, a feeling of being old and a feeling of being unworthy of the honor being given w...
This is a piece I wrote about an experience I had in trying to make room on my bookshelves for new books. It's kind of funny and eye opening. It translated into all kinds of areas in my life. A parallel process of epiphanies and awakenings. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
We tend, at times, as care providers to camouflage or deny our feelings when the ones we are caring for are a 'job'. Even when it isn't our job, we sometimes don't know what to do with emotions that come up. After all, we are going to be fine, the one we are caring for is dying, so why should we get to be sad? This is the story off how one woman helped her hospice nurse see that the best care happens when we open our hearts and allow our emotions to be seen. Thank you for listening to Where the ...
In this episode I talk about the parallels between my Montessori work life and my work with those in Grief. Exploring the necessity to sometimes 'go back' before we can more successfully move forward. And how in going back, we find a deeper understanding and appreciation for what lies ahead. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.
The piece missing from the story of my mom's death is what she wrote to us in her legacy letter. The story she told, after 32 years of silence, about an event we shared during one summer vacation. It is, in large part, responsible for my decision to leave teaching and start down this road of working with people at end of life. Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com....
Just the mention of the word Hospice can sometimes cause great distress to a family. But when someone is appropriate, in other words if their illness qualifies them for Hospice services, NOT mentioning it is wrong. Generally, all people know is that Hospice means someone will die. And that is true. So, how do we make friends with that reality? How do we ease ourselves into that knowing and maintain a calm presence? One way is by learning what it is Hospice can do, what things a healthy Hospice a...
