Sacred Thread Update: November New Moon 2026

November 8, 2026/Elizabeth Rainey/Comments Off

Hello Tender Beings ~

I am currently in a book study group discussing The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseski. This book holds the boiled down teachings/insights/learnings/invitations from his decades of running The Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco as well as supporting many beings through their dying process; the knowing that tending death, our own and others, can give us insight and guidance on how we can live life more fully. This understanding is at the heart of so many spiritual traditions and yet we still live in an over culture that struggles to talk about dying let alone actually be with the complex emotions and the mystery of it. As the saying goes, no one here gets out alive. Life and death are partners and so leaning into one can ask us to notice and show up for the other more clearly.

To be honest, I don’t know where this post is going, as I, along with my whole community here in Bend, Oregon, are endeavoring to navigate the violent and untimely deaths in the school shooting 3 weeks ago. Not to mention the injuries and impact to others, close in and in the ever widening circles. It is important not to contort some of these teachings to bypass the horror and pain. I don’t pretend to understand the purpose of these events but I do know that the only way through is through…tending the admixture of emotions which at its core is life in the moment.

There is a bigger picture, a mystery, that I only glimpse from time to time, and can’t fully grasp. But I…we…are invited to tend to this life, right here and now, in its messy confusing beauty. The invitations in the book as well as the embodied spiritual practices of open attention, soft gaze, tender heart and more are ways to find resilience in meeting life and death, however it shows up. Resilience is not just getting through a tough situation with grit and determination but finding the capacity to dance with all the aspects of it and grow into a larger container of Self and life. It is work that requires us to be gentle and fierce, tender and present.

I sense that I am rambling and seeking to say something profound and yet I am aware that what I need and perhaps what you need is not profundity but care and wit(h)nessing in the great unfolding of life and death. So blessings to you.

May we hold the tenderness of death as a mirror for the vibrancy of life

May we be gentle with our own and others broken hearts.

May we endeavor to show up for life and death and all the moments of each

May we bring wild blessings and fierce love to all we encounter

Practice Prompts:

Consider finding a local or online group to begin or deepen your conversation with death. There are many areas that host Death Cafes as well as wise folks guiding conversations online. One resource might be my dear friend, Tanya Hughes. She has a wonderful and extensive list of resources at the bottom of her death work page.
During the autumn, as it is right now in the Northern Hemisphere, notice the changes and vibrancy in color and allow yourself to register and sit with the fact that this beauty comes from the dying back process. Can you practice holding the complexity of the beauty of the leaves that comes from the withdrawing of life. Write about it, draw it, dance it, sing it…in some way allow yourself to expand to hold life and death, beauty and decay.
Here is a LINK to prior blog posts/newsletters with various topics and practices. There are dozens to choose from!
Here is a LINK to my profile on Insight Timer. From here you can access different recorded practices… some for free and some for paying members. Let me know what practices you may want to see added!
Explore with me, in-person in Bend, Oregon, and virtually all over the world. These sessions are centered on supporting you finding nervous system capacity and resiliency through various practices including but not limited to Somatic Experiencing®, Continuum Inquiry and various embodying practices. Respond to this email or schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session.

Practice Opportunities:

Virtual:

Inspirational Wisdom

Eagle Poem

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.