Ascending Intentionally

02/03/2026

Happy Monday! What’s one thing on your agenda this week that brings you a little peace or joy? 🤩 😌

Sometimes noticing the small, meaningful moments can help us navigate the bigger ones.

02/03/2026

Did you know that after you die, you might take your final journey through the U.S. mail system?

A little known fact: in the United States, United States Postal Service is the only carrier legally permitted to ship cremated remains. They have strict requirements for how it must be done. Cremated remains must be sent Priority Mail Express, usually costing somewhere between $75–$150. They’re typically delivered the next day and include full tracking.

The USPS will even provide multiple sizes of the required cremated-remains shipping kit for free and ship it directly to your door, you just request it through their website. And if a guaranteed delivery is missed, you can file a claim and receive a refund on the shipping cost entirely!

Even if you’re sending just a small keepsake portion of ashes or cremation jewelry, the same packaging rules apply. It still has to go in the official box and follow the same mailing standards.
In all the years I’ve worked in funeral service, this is actually one of the few types of shipments I’ve rarely seen USPS mess up, but I’d be curious to hear from funeral directors or families who have received cremated remains through the mail. What has your experience been?

Funeral homes will often charge $300–$450 to ship cremated remains, and while that might seem high, there’s a reason. Staff must carefully package the urn, complete the documentation, transport it to the post office, wait in line, and make sure everything is processed correctly. Even so, it’s still far less expensive than hiring a private cremated-remains courier, which is another option if you know where to look.

As the old motto goes: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." 📦📬✈️

02/03/2026

Happy Monday!

In the rush of daily responsibilities, it’s easy to forget just how sacred each moment truly is. Whether you're holding a hand, making a call, or simply pausing to breathe..you are spending your time with love.

Let this week be a reminder: the little things matter. Your presence matters. And time given with compassion is never wasted. 💜

01/03/2026

01/03/2026

👇🏻👇🏻thiiiiis👇🏻👇🏻

When someone is declining, whether from age or illness, the world gets louder while their voice gets softer. Decisions are made. Plans are formed. Opinions fill the room. And the person in the bed often learns quickly to just nod in agreement with what everyone else is saying… to what everyone else is deciding… on their behalf.

We need to change that!

Autonomy does not disappear because a body weakens. A voice does not lose value because it trembles. A life does not become public property because it is nearing its end.

It is not our place to tell someone how to feel, how to choose, how to grieve, how to love, or how to die.

Our role, if we are brave enough, is to pause long enough to ask:
How do you feel about this?
What do you need?
How do you want to meet this?
How can we support you?

Meeting someone where they are is not passive, it is sacred. It requires us to set down our biases, our urgency, our judgment, and our need to be right.

Especially when someone is dying, the least we can do, the very least, is let them be heard. This is their choice. Our role is to listen.

xo
Gabby
www.thehospiceheart.net

01/03/2026

01/03/2026

Ba dum tss 🥁 ⚰️ ☠️

27/02/2026

🩶The dying are not a task, a room number, or a chart, they are a life.🩶

I have walked into hospital rooms where the whiteboard lists vitals, medications, and care plans, and I always pause before I look at any of it. Because before the diagnosis, before the paperwork, before the bed alarm and the charting, there is a human being who has lived an entire lifetime.

They have loved. They have raised children, built careers, held hands, made mistakes, carried regrets, laughed at kitchen tables, and cried behind closed doors. They have favourite songs, sacred memories, unfinished conversations, and stories that deserve to be heard. End of life care is not about completing tasks, it is about witnessing a life.

When we reduce someone to a room number or a condition, we strip away their identity, their fragility, them. But when we sit at their bedside and ask about who they are, not just what is happening to them, something shifts. The atmosphere softens. Fear eases. Humanity returns to the centre of the room.

As a Death Doula, I see legacies. I see mothers, brothers, artists, carpenters, dreamers. I see lives that matter until the very last breath.

Dying is not a medical event alone, it is a human experience. And every life, right up to the end, deserves to be treated as one.

🪶Join us this March 2026 to become a Death Doula. Virtually or in person.🪶

27/02/2026

AARP’s coverage of death doulas underscores what Doulagivers have known all along.. that trained, non-medical support enriches care for dying individuals and their families.