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Die Wise

By: Stephen Jenkinson
Narrated by: Stephen Jenkinson
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Publisher's Summary

Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours no honey to make the medicine go down. Instead, with lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the center of the discussion and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty. Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Die Wise is for those who will fail to live forever.

Dying well, Jenkinson writes, is a right and responsibility of everyone. It is not a lifestyle option. It is a moral, political, and spiritual obligation all people owe their ancestors and their heirs. Die Wise dreams such a dream and plots such an uprising. How we die, how we care for dying people, and how we carry our dead: This work makes our capacity for a village-mindedness - or breaks it.

©2015 Stephen Jenkinson (P)2016 Stephen Jenkinson

Critic Reviews

"Stephen Jenkinson's elegant and sorrow-freighted book brings prophetic insight rather than pastoral affirmations. A true story-man, Jenkinson paints image after image on the cave wall of his parchment. Die Wise is a formidable body of work, road-tested in ways most of us hope never to know about." (Dr. Martin Shaw, author of Snowy Tower: Parzival and the Wet, Black Branch of Language)

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So Beautiful

Just a lovely and much needed view of the wholeness missing from western culture. Kind of like an invitation to live with our death, instead of hiding from and hating it.

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Deep Wisdom

Beautifully narrated by the author, giving the message in this book the clarity it deserves. A must read for everyone who is or who will die and anyone who attends the dying.
This is a thought provoking and challenging book. I will listen and read it again.

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Fascinating

Could not stop listening to this. It was a superb mix of anecdotes and thoughts.
I do not necessarily agree with Stephen's words regarding culture, but certainly take his words onboard and appreciate them.
Wonderful book. I think most will get a lot out of this.

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Highly recommend

There's a lot of truth in this book that isn't often spoken in our 'death-phobic' society. It's a long meandering, thought-provoking, rewarding listen. As someone who is dying a 'slow death', I found this book incredibly liberating. I felt it gave words to the half-formed ideas I couldn't properly express. I feel it has given me ownership of my experience in a new way. Can recommend for the dying & for those who would like to learn more.

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Sanity for the soul

This book was as an insightful guide for me while supporting my dying mother.

More than an honest and confronting guide for dealing with death, it also was surprisingly a guide to a better way of living.

A poetic insight into our culture and beliefs around dying and living, Stephen's words haunted me with the ring of truth.

Guiding the reader through true gritty and solemn stories from his own experiences with death having worked in palliative care for 35 years, Stephen delivers wisdom that spares the reader the positive spin and self help feel good jargon we have come to expect.

Along the way he also addresses and distinguishes some historical myths our culture has around living and dying, that we have unwittingly inherited.

Die Wise is a sobering and somber read that I very much enjoyed and left me wondering again child like about life and death.

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Life changing

Challenging, eloquent and true. I feel liberated and understood so deeply by this book. Things we might feel, but do not know how to say, have been so beautifully written out - in my case, read out. I found his voice to be familiar, calming and safe.

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Breathtaking and challenging.

A text to experience over and over and a way of being that is as beautiful as it is raw and loving.

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Needed to be said

Steven is a word turner of the highest order, only a craftsman like he can tackle this subject. Someone had to. Thanks

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The beauty in death as a giver of life.

The truest words spoken on what death, and therefore life, really is, without casting any illusions. Thank you Stephen for your work.

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Should be required reading!

This book is so rich. I can’t recommend it enough. Of such value as a reminder of our place in the cosmos.

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