Holly Pruett Life-Cycle Celebrant

10/06/2026

I was struck, over the weekend when I compressed my six-part "Befriending Mortality" series into an eight-hour intensive, by how often I cited Stephen Jenkinson. The decade+ spent studying with Stephen and Nathalie Roy in their Orphan Wisdom school radically deepened my approach to deathcare and lifecare.
"Learn death before your own"... grief as a skill and not just an emotion... "start with the poverty"...these are essential teachings for our times.
I was privileged to coproduce a number of Stephen's teachings in Portland, pre-pandemic, and several earlier visitations of Nights of Grief & Mystery. This time I'll be in the hall in Port Townsend, to be shaken and stirred once again.
If you can get to a show, please do. If you can't, spend some time with Stephen's writings, the many talks available through podcasts, the magical music he's made with Gregory Hoskins and band. It's not the easy reassurance of the Hallmark card approach on offer through much of the spiritual and self-improvement marketplace. It's a truer thing – what Stephen calls "a love letter to the place we call home."

08/19/2026

“Learn death before your own,” Stephen Jenkinson teaches.

My father’s death was my first teacher. What I learned from those 18 months from diagnosis to death — and what happened (and didn’t) afterwards — has continued to evolve in the 25 years since, through so many of my own life milestones, including turning the age he was when his death sentence arrived.

What deaths have been your teachers? What are the physical, medical, legal, logistical, social, emotional, spiritual, and familial dimensions of those deaths? How do they inform your approach to the inevitable? And what’s the impact of culture, cultural diaspora, and consumer culture in all of this?

This is the ground we meet on in my six-session Befriending Mortality course. Offered for the last time in the foreseeable future this September through November. Details in comments.

I’d love to see you there and hear your stories.

08/16/2026

This fall’s six-session on-line Befriending Mortality series is the last before I put it on the shelf for the foreseeable future. If you’ve been thinking of checking this out, now’s the time. Attend live or access the recordings. Even better — enroll with a buddy! I’d love to see you there.

Begins in just 4 weeks, Monday Sept 14. Details in comments.

06/22/2026

"A truly wonderful workshop – important and timely information offered with great compassion and love.”

I'm looking forward to offering Befriending Mortality in partnership with The Lantern this fall. See comments for links to more info & registration for the In-Person Intensive and the six-part Online Series. Early bird discounts through July 31.

06/07/2026

Some years ago, a pussywillow basket came to me in a dream. In a scene still vivid in my mind's eye, I carried this basket to my mother's bedside as she lay awaiting her death.

My mother, approaching her 88th birthday this month, is still physically robust. Her personality, sense of humor, and fundamental equanimity remain intact, even as her mind knows only the present moment.

The present moment is one of the few places in the disaster of dementia that makes sense. As a worrier and planner and fixer, it's not an easy place for me to be. And so I try to pay attention when the present moment is clearly tapping me on the shoulder.

One such moment came when a series of unbidden circumstances found me on a walk at White Eagle Memorial Preserve with Mo Hohmann, a basket weaver. I told her of my dream. She said, "Well, we need to make that basket."

Six months later I traveled to Woven Thresholds, Mo's studio above a goat barn. She would supply the larger willow weavers but suggested I should be the one to gather the fluffy catkins. In my seasonal travels I searched for the right place, the right moment, the right way of coming to this harvest.

None appeared – until the very first morning of my return from the road when Amber and I set out for a walk. "What's that?" she said, noticing a young willow festooned with silky gray tufts at the end of our block. It had never been there before.

Grief. Joy. Wonder. These have become the touchstones of this phase of my life. The rubble of the old structures still surrounds me (sometimes I'm pinned beneath it, to be honest).
But every day, I get to witness and partner with others seeking to befriend their mortality and love what we can't fix – this is the basket of beauty I hope to carry with me until the ending of my days.

Registration is now open for my fall offerings. A new, in-person Intensive Befriending Mortality format – an evening followed by a full day in the warm nest of The Lantern. And the popular virtual option – six sessions over three months – which always includes a nice mix of folks from across the country. Think about enrolling in either format with a friend! Links in comments.

03/30/2026

Join us next week to reflect on how we can serve our communities with ceremony. Registration link in comments.

03/14/2026

Kudos to Friendly House Elder Pride Services for this terrific resource guide, and for hosting both the Resource Fair & Planning with Pride!

03/12/2026

Excited to share a few stories and community connection tips with others passionate about bringing people together for shared meaning-making in these lonely times.

🤩 Don't Miss Out!

📆 Mark your calendars and register early to get a front row seat to these insightful and rousing enrichment events.

Over the next three months, join us for a night of inspirational insights and conversation with three remarkable experts, each bringing to NTI’s Connecting Our Community Series their wealth of experience and heartfelt guidance.

⭐️ Join Us for Three Inspiring Evenings with:

Morning Altars Holly Pruett Life-Cycle Celebrant Grateful Living

These sessions promise to spark ideas, deepen your practice, and strengthen our community. You won’t want to miss them.

Note: All registrants will receive access to the session recording.

registration: https://www.naturaltransitions.org/store -1593046178513

03/07/2026

Starts Monday! Still time to join us. Registration link in comments.
Week 1: Befriending Mortality
Week 2: Final Disposition
Week 3: The Dying Time
Week 4: From Death to Disposition
Week 5: Remembering Together
Week 6: Making a Death Plan

02/21/2026

In the lead-up to my next Befriending Mortality class series, I've published a two-part retrospective on my 40 years of activism – from fighting for women's and LGBTQ rights to protecting funeral rites. Links to Befriending Mortality registration and the 40-year retrospective are in comments.