Death Cafe profile for Tracy Seffers
Location: United States
About Tracy Seffers:
Elder Care/End of Life Doula via Doulagivers Int'l. INELDA trained, NEDA Proficient, earning the Certified Music Practitioner credential via Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP).
Ready to talk about the hard stuff with you.
What brings you to Death Cafe?
I want to be able to provide this conversation in my communities, and this is the premier resource to do so. Thank you!
What would you like your legacy to be?
I created spaces for people to breathe, and be, and create - to live and die in peace, and to know themselves beloved and held in tenderness.
Thoughts for sharing:
When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, toward silence, and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth. When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
—Mary Oliver
Contact Tracy Seffers
Tracy Seffers's posts on the Death Cafe website
With Tracy Seffers
Oct. 17, 2024, 3.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. (NY)
Free
Sponsored by Hospice of the Panhandle/Center for Grief Support. Open dialogue and compassionate conversation without judgment around the difficult topics of death, dying, and grieving.
Death Cafe write up: April 2024 Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe
Posted by Tracy Seffers on April 3, 2024, 10:52 a.m.
Water was brought to a boil, the tea and cake set out as usual, and several of us gathered around the table.
Tracy opened with a brief selection from Joan Halifax of Upaya Center, talking about two paths we choose as we face questions about death - the path of fear, or a path that accepts and explores with curiousity the impermanence of all things. The choice of path then impacts the life we lead.
Discussion continued: knowing that "the mug is already broken", how do we face death, how do we live our lives? With tenderness, softness, a delicate touch, hope . . . it was a rich conversation.
Introductions around ...
Death Cafe: April 2024 Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe
Posted by Tracy Seffers on April 1, 2024, 9:33 a.m.
With Tracy Seffers
April 2, 2024, 12.00 p.m. - 1.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
Join us for tea, cake and compassionate conversation about death and dying.
Bring your questions, your stories, your worries. Bring your open hearts and minds. Bring your grief and your ...
Death Cafe write up: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on March 5, 2024, 2:50 p.m.
Spring is starting to spring up all around us, peeping green from the decay of last year's leaves - life rising up out of death, death giving birth to new life - the eternal cycle coming round again.
Tea and cake were set out for our guests, and as people gathered.
The first topic brought to the table for discussion (thank you, Christine!) was the idea of "delayed" or "displaced" grief. What is it - why is it? How does it look for different grievers and difference death circumstances? Is it cultural - individual - communal - self-protective?
Conversation then moved to thinking about which cultures (like the Tibetan Buddhists) "do death" well ...
Death Cafe write up: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Feb. 23, 2024, 2:43 p.m. 1 comment
It was another lively gathering in February, fresh off the snowstorms that surprised us!
Discussion centered around how those who are dying - or caring for those who are dying - may find spirituality/religious traditions comforting or distressing, or anywhere along that spectrum.
The Cafe closed with a reading of Lisel Mueller's lovely poem, "Hope":
"It is the singular gift we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death . . .
all we know of God. . . .
it is in this poem, trying to speak."
Over tea and homemade cake, it was a lovely gathering, with the promise of more good conversation to come.
First Tuesdays at Noon - Shepherdstown Public ...
Death Cafe: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Feb. 23, 2024, 2:32 p.m.
With Tracy Seffers
March 5, 2024, 12.00 p.m. - 1.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Free
Join us for tea, cake and compassionate conversation about death and dying.
Bring your questions, your stories, your worries. Bring your open hearts and minds. Bring your grief and your ...
Death Cafe: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Dec. 5, 2023, 1:24 p.m.
With Tracy Seffers
Feb. 6, 2024, 12.00 p.m. - 1.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Free
Join us for tea, cake and compassionate conversation about death and dying.
Bring your questions, your stories, your worries. Bring your open hearts and minds. Bring your grief and your ...
Death Cafe write up: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Dec. 5, 2023, 12:58 p.m. 2 comments
For our inaugural offering, we had 11 community members come for tea and cake (gratefully received), amazing conversation, and not a little laughter.
Tracy opened the session with a reading of Mary Oliver's "When Death Comes".
The usual round of introductions included an invitation to "tell us why you are here" - prompting lovely stories, with much head nodding and affirmation around the circle.
Questions ranged from, "Why do we not want to tell people that we are sick until it's too late?" to "What do you want to come back as in your next life?"
Several wonderful books were mentioned as resources:
- "The Book of Two ...
New Blog post: Coming Home
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Nov. 10, 2023, 6:48 a.m.
Death Cafe: Shepherdstown WV Death Cafe: Tea, Cake and Conversation
Posted by Tracy Seffers on Oct. 25, 2023, 2:15 p.m.
With Tracy Seffers
Dec. 5, 2023, 12.00 p.m. - 1.00 p.m. (Eastern)
Accepts donations
Join us for tea, cake and compassionate conversation about death and dying. Bring your questions, your stories, your worries. Bring your open hearts and minds. Bring your grief and your ...