Let’s talk about death, baby.
Hi. I'm Karen Austin.
I've spent a decade talking about the thing everyone else avoids. Pull up a chair (or a tombstone).
Karen’s 9 Truths About Death and Grief and Mourning
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Truth 1
None of us are getting out of here alive. We will all die.
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Truth 2
We’re all mostly pretending not to know Truth 1.
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Truth 3
Grief and mourning are not synonymous. Grief is passive. Mourning is active.
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Truth 4
No one teaches us to grieve and mourn. We learn it under protest and on the fly, often on our very worst most terrible days.
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Truth 5
We’re collectively really really really bad at death and grief and mourning. One might say we suck at it.
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Truth 6
Unresolved grief and the pain we stuff away can and often does create chaos and collapse in our bodies, minds, relationships, and lives.
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Truth 7
We are a society stuck in grief because we don’t talk about death, we hide our pain and don’t share our mourning.
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Truth 8
There are gifts in grief and magic in mourning. They’re good at hiding, but they’re there if we’re willing to look for them.
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Truth 9
When we stop running from death, and run towards grief and mourning, we find life. Why would we want to? See Truth 1.
So often I ask myself, “what would Karen Austin do?” I support people through death daily, whether it is planning for it or coping with it and wading through the mess that can be left after someone has passed. Getting to know you and Tracy, being a part of your journey, and learning to feel through grief has changed not only me personally, but how I support each of our clients through that process. Your influence has touched thousands of people through me alone.
Grief, loss, and pushing through painful journeys is part of the human condition. Our culture lost sight of it and pushed those “negative” experiences to the side. You merged everything together, the bitter and the sweet, the joy and the loss, the love and the pain. You are what our culture needs to remind us that we can have both, feel the feels and still get stuff done.”