Death Doula to Dying Empire

“Our big systems are on their death beds…Our medical systems make us sick. Our food systems create malnutrition. Our educational systems are failing our kids. Our criminal justice system makes our communities less safe. Our democratic systems are run by a select few. Our economic systems continue to create poverty. And, of course, our ecological systems are collapsing all around us. I don’t believe we’re approaching the ‘end of the world.’ But I do believe we’re approaching the end of something, and it’s something big.” In the context of this collapse, Haga proposes a need to normalise death, and recognise the “incredible liberation in the work of accepting our own mortality.” Which means “accepting the grief that naturally comes with it,” because “if we bury grief, we don’t normalise death; we suppress it.” Haga ends by catching our inclination to find this overly negative: “becoming a death doula to dying empires means we’re giving birth to a new one. The work of accepting death isn’t about giving up on life. It’s about honouring the fullness of it.”