All the ways our dead still speak : a funeral director on life, death, and the hereafter

What if our dead remain with us? What if closure is not the goal? No matter what you believe about the afterlife, what if the hereafter intersects with the here and now? Caleb Wilde, author of the acclaimed memoir Confessions of a Funeral Director, was a skeptic. The baffling stories people told him--deathbed visions of long-dead parents, visits from the other side--must be hallucinations or wishful thinking, he thought. But the more stories he heard, and the more he learned about non-Western understandings of body and spirit, the less sure he was. All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak takes readers on a lyrical and tender quest to encounter the hereafter. As Wilde picks up bodies, organizes funerals, and meets with grieving families in a small town in Pennsylvania, those who remain share with him--and us--what they experience in the thin places between life and death. Entwining these stories with his own as a sixth-generation funeral director, and with the findings of neuroscience and the solace of faith, Wilde creates a searching, reverent inquiry into all the ways our dead remain with us. In the process, he takes on prevailing dogmas about death: from a narrow Christian view of heaven and hell, to secular assumptions that death is the end, to pop-psychology maxims that say we all need "closure" after our loved ones die. The dead don't have to be buried twice, once in the ground and again in our hearts. In the pages of this unforgettable book, learn how love and memory and mystery fuse this world to the next. "Gutsy is a fresh perspective on ways to live the happiest, boldest, most self-loving and compassionate life we all deserve." —PhD, author of The Happiness Track Western society too often trains women out of feeling innately confident in who we are and in the wisdom we hold inside. Instead, we are handed down a set of expectations about our bodies, our disposition, our religious identification, our sexual orientation, our mothering, and our career choices. Dr. Leah Katz draws on her training as a psychologist and her experience leaving an ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith and culture to offer tools and insights for getting "unstuck" from society's unrealistic and often harmful expectations for women that we have adopted as our own. By learning to identify what is holding us back, and adopting a mindset of joy, gratitude, and resilience, we can fulfill our dreams—and, really, fulfill ourselves. It's time to get gutsy and create the rich, vibrant life we have always wanted. "Western society too often trains women out of feeling innately confident in who we are and in the wisdom we hold inside. Instead, we are handed down a set of expectations about our bodies, our disposition, our religious identification, our sexual orientation, our mothering, and our career choices. Dr. Leah Katz draws on her training as a psychologist and her experience leaving an ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith and culture to offer tools and insights for getting "unstuck" from society's unrealistic and often harmful expectations for women that we have adopted as our own. By learning to identify what is holding us back, and adopting a mindset of joy, gratitude, and resilience, we can fulfill our dreams--and, really, fulfill ourselves. It's time to get gutsy and create the rich, vibrant life we have always wanted."--Amazon.com "All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak takes readers on a lyrical and tender quest to encounter the hereafter. As Wilde picks up bodies, organizes funerals, and meets with grieving families in a small town in Pennsylvania, those who remain share with him--and us--what they experience in the thin places between life and death."-- Provided by publisher What if our dead remain with us? What if the hereafter intersects with the here and now? In All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak, sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde takes readers on a lyrical, tender quest to encounter the hereafter. Through stories of grieving family members who remain, we witness the thin places between life and death Women are too often trained out of feeling confident in the wisdom we hold inside. Drawing on her clinical experience and her personal story of leaving her ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith and culture, Dr. Leah Katz shows us how to set aside unrealistic expectations and trust our inner wisdom, making brave leaps in the search for fulfillment