A Sacred Passing
July 2025 Newlestter
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Bubble of hope by bubble of hope ... that's how we make it
Stardusts,
Our ancestors had wild times, and they made change, significant change. It's a time to revisit the strength and courage of those least harmful ancestors and ask for care, support, guidance, and protection. gather it in your magic pouch, and know it's there, with you at all times. We are all we have.
Time at Asphodel reminds me of this on the regular. Our guests this year have created meaningful, long-lasting change at the house and in us as volunteers. The majority of the people we have cared for this year have come alone or without the support they had hoped for. In the bubble of the house, they were able to find community, legacy, honor, laughs, and love. In the bubble of our care, they were supported, unquestioned, believed, and cared for in ways they wanted and needed.
A recent guest arrived on a beautiful sunny day, and we went right out to the deck. After a few hours on the deck with BeBe & CeCe, American Spirit blues, and Arnold Palmers, she said,
"How do I finally get here, to this place, and now I am gonna die?
It's too good here for me to do this. There's so much love up in
these here walls, I can't die yet. I just can't, it's too good, and
i wanna feel some more."
And she did. She spent the day teaching us how to make her spaghetti sauce, sharing her poetry, and singing, followed by a good night's sleep and a slow morning with black coffee.
In this time when systems are crumbling, we need to stretch our care for each other in ways that are unfamiliar to many and so necessary for our futures. The ways that we do that aren't always public and shared, and often because that keeps people safe. Please know that we are here to help you help others. That can look so many ways, so please reach out to us directly if you find yourself needing help. We aren't always able to help, but being a resource is our biggest resource.
You can make a huge difference where you are. Movements require people for all roles. Write the letters, make the calls, block the "frozen water club" of kidnappers. You can cook for the people on patrols, send us a stack of handwritten letters of appreciation or affirmation to care professionals, activists, elders, and others afraid to go to the grocery store, a soccer game, a court appointment, to get gas for someone else ...
We just need to keep caring for each other, and it's going to get harder as stress and grief layer onto people and access to care diminishes. Please help us strengthen this network of tenders. Peep the volunteer section below.
We are all volunteers here at A Sacred Passing, I am entering my 7th year as a volunteer ED, and we have never had a staff. Many people think we have a staff, but we don't- we have a small crew of people who believe in this care model and make things happen while holding down other jobs, roles while life also happens to us. We really need you to make this happen. It is such a blessing to match with volunteers ready and willing to do this work, from anti-racist, anti-carceral and mutual aid centered models. It is hard because we are working outside of the systems presented.... AND what we are doing IS working, it really is.
If we were in proximity with each other, I'd ask whether you are OK with a hug, and if you are ... HUGS ... an intentional hug, because things are wild. Please hold on. We depend on it.
Lashanna
| | Saying an Earthly Goodbye to One of Our Own | |
"Alyssa Out"
On Friday, June 13 (the only Friday the 13th this year), Alyssa died, surrounded by the loves of her life: family, friends, and the Golden Girls.
Alyssa is so much to so many ... In the bubble of A Sacred Passing, she was part of the team of people who birthed the Listening Line, and she continued to train listeners for almost three years. She knew she was doing something special when we all were in those Zoom rooms, and she never stopped carrying that energy. She knew, she always knew. This world is so much better because she was here and chose to do the work she did on this Earth while she was. A small crew of us at ASP were present for her and all her loves during her time at home. There is no bigger honor than the trust of someone in their dying, especially someone who knows the many ways that dying can be.
She was a lover of tea, books, dogs, and end-of-life paperwork ... so please drink one, read one, pet one for her, or complete one for her.
Below is her official obituary, with permission to share here.
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Alyssa transcended the effects of a rare and aggressive cancer and peacefully took her last breath at her home in Seattle, WA, with her family and friends by her side.
Shrouded in linen and wildflowers, she was sacredly held and honored with the same tenaciously expansive expression of love and beauty she curated in the hearts and lives of those she loved.
Resting now in her full power and eternal light, Alyssa will always be remembered for her brilliant smile and joyous infectious laughter, the source by which her medicine of compassion, strength, connection, gratitude and humor was shared.
Alyssa was fiercely loyal, incredibly funny and easily the very best person to have by your side regardless of the situation. She carried the wisdom of a sage and a memory for nuanced moments of long ago that held the history and confidences of her closest people.
The ease with which Alyssa could create and hold safe spaces, witnessing and tending to others with kindness and offerings of grace and levity, was without end.
Ever since she was a little girl, she was a champion for the underdog, the silenced and marginalized voices.
Alyssa’s dedication to social justice work was robust and long-lasting. Most recently she was the director of DEIA (diversity equity, inclusion, and accessibility) at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. Her propensity for giving back to this world was fueled by her heart and demonstrated in her activism in the spaces she occupied. This includes the Africa Yoga Project, where she obtained her yoga teacher training certification and volunteered at a local school in Kenya. Alyssa taught yoga classes for many years in her community with an emphasis on the trauma-informed.
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(cont.) She believed that yoga was both a powerful gateway to self-discovery and a modality to work through trauma stored in the body.
She also trained with (the incredible organization) A Sacred Passing, based in Seattle, for her deathcare education, along with volunteer work on its talk line during the pandemic. She obtained a Yoga Behind Bars certification, enabling her to teach yoga in the Washington State prison system to incarcerated women and youth for years.
Prior to moving to Seattle, she lived in New York City for over a decade, where she worked in the fashion industry for prominent designers Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, and Akris.
Among Alyssa's many personal accomplishments, she successfully ran the Seattle marathon in 2022, and enjoyed ballet classes, live music, playing flute, and traveling. She was an avid writer and reader and an insatiable learner. At the top of her list would be the love she had and the care she gave to her rescue dogs Leila and Carlie.
Alyssa was and will remain the most profound source of love and light, the complete embodiment of how beautiful and impactful one’s life can be.
Alyssa is survived by her parents Francisco and Sandra Pizarro (SC), sister Vanessa Pizarro (Vail, CO), partner Nick Galli and fur baby Carlie (Seattle, WA), lifelong friends Krista (Haight) Hendrickson and Alice (Cho) Lee and their boys, to whom she was the coolest aunt ever! She is also survived by many beloved family members and friends, along with communities she touched far and wide.
In lieu flowers, please send donations:
The Africa Yoga Project Donate Here,
Yoga Behind Bars Donate Here,
A Sacred Passing Donate Here,
or support your local animal shelter.
A special note of appreciation to Alyssa's death doula Lashanna (and friends) at A Sacred Passing, Evergreen Hospice, Fred Hutch Cancer Center care team, and UW Medical Center nurses for their guidance and care in Alyssa’s final days. We are forever grateful.
A celebration of Alyssa’s life is planned for September, 2025. Details to come.
| | | Let's Communicate More Often !! | |
Community Deathcare Google Group
Join today
A reminder to join the community deathcare Google group. It's as active as we are and a great place to send requests for mutual aid supplies, share about educational classes, workshops, art shows, performances, and other things you think people would like to know about. Please don't just forward things, add a sentence or two about why you are sharing it.
Being in more frequent communication builds relationships, grows trust, and strengthens our ability to sustain our networks of care.
What is a Google group? it's like the old school Yahoo-group email communication tool. Be mindful about sending responses. If it's "oh how cool i love this," maybe reply to the sender, but if you're adding to it, reply to all! It's OK to learn and fumble. Having meaningful group communication is the most important part of this!
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Special Tea Blends
Carolyn from Acknowledge Wellness came to visit again. This time we made three tea blends that are available at Asphodel for those who come by.
Grief Blend - loves on those in deep grief
Cup of Hugs - loves on those experiencing depression
Tea of Fury - loves on those feeling anger and despair
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Creating A Nest of Care
June marked our sixth monthly gathering in our year-long collaboration with Perinatal Support WA and Imani's Light. Creating a Nest of Care is the heart work of both Marquita and Lashanna and has been grown over the last decade. This model is about more than education. It was our goal that a community of birth workers come out of this year together, not only being able to support their community, but also to have a community of support from within. This class is hosted by PS-WA allowing all attendees to join at no cost to them.
This collaboration has been deeply impactful for all of us participating .
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Sally's Peonies Bloomed
This year Sally's peony tree bloomed with petals that looked like they were made from 100-year-old paper. We collected and dried most of the petals and plan to make a watercolor paint from the extracted pigment, which will join three others made from botanicals at Asphodel. There will be a limited number of tins available for sale as a fundraiser in the new year.
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Our volunteers have been busy! Thank you to the people answering emails, holding support groups, showing up for guests at the house, dreaming, doing yard work, loving on Asphodel, and supporting each other. These times are devastatingly wild and dangerous, and what you're doing is future-building.
If there is a project you are dreaming of, share it with us! It just takes putting it out there to plant a seed of possibility.
Thank you for showing interest and living in action with love and care for A Sacred Passing.
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We are in need of sustainable long-term commitments from members of our community to continue offering community care. If you have been through ASP's volunteer training and are waiting for the right time, we need you!
Long-Term Volunteer Commitments: When we say "long term," we know that we are living amidst uncertainty, devastation, and times of tremendous change, but we hope that you would be with us for no less that a year. It takes about three months to get comfy in a role, and then more time to do the things.
- 3 Asphodel House Stewards (Interview Process): 2 years; roughly 2-5 hours/week
- 1 Community Connector (Outreach): 1-2 years; roughly 5 hours hours/week
- 4 Family Aftercare Support Team Members: roughly 1-2 years; 3 hours hours/week
- 10 Direct Community Education Team Members: 1 year; 2 hours per/week
If you are interested in any of these long-term roles, please email volunteer@asacredpassing.org
Our next volunteer training will be this fall!
Recently we have noticed an increase in people treating the volunteer training like a deathcare training and then not volunteering. Y'all, this isn't a deathcare training. It's our labor, sharing of what we have learned with the understanding that the reciprocity comes back in the form of helping us keep this little machine doing what it does.
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Help Us Grow the Past Students Directory
We are working on compiling a directory of past ASP students who have completed death-care and/or death-doula training with ASP to aid in connecting our community members. If you wish to be included in the directory, which will be available on A Sacred Passing's website once we have 50 participants, please fill out this Google form.
Have questions? Need assistance? Reach out to classes@asacredpassing.org and include the word "directory" in the subject line. Thank you so much for your time and participation. We look forward to building this together with you all!
| | | Upcoming Programs & Events | | |
Benefit for anti-fascist prisoner solidarity
July 25, 7pm
1st Ave Bridge, Seattle
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Mutual Aid workshop to inspire new MA crews, improve resource sharing, and expand the scope of mutual aid.
July 5 @ noon
4534 University Way NE
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MAST - Mutual Aid Self/Social Therapy
Hamlin Park, 15th Ave
Fridays 4-5:30pm
Potluck @ 5:30pm
*Masks required, except when eating
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1st Sunday, July 6, 7-8:30pm
This group meets monthly for people with someone in their lives who uses MAiD or VSED. The group starts with a grounding prompt. Then it separates into MAiD and VSED breakout rooms for an hour and comes back together with a closing prompt.
Register Here
1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 7-9pm
This support group is for people needing a space to talk with other folks who feel exploited and exhausted by capitalism. Most grief support groups are death-related, so we at A Sacred Passing decided to offer a space to grieve the other ways in which we struggle. The Grief & Care Under Capitalism Support Group is a facilitated space with conversation directed by participants, offered virtually via Zoom on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month from 7-9pm PST. The group is free, though donations to A Sacred Passing are always welcomed. This is a drop-in group, so you can join us once or several times, with no need to commit to multiple sessions.
Register Here
1st Friday, 1-2:30pm
Join us in this grief group for people who have lost someone(s) they love. This group is open to people experiencing grief from a recent death. This is an ongoing group that meets monthly on Zoom. We had paused this for the summer and are unpausing due to current state of the world.
Register Here
2nd Sunday, 9-10:30am
Join us for a bit of time together, a chance to engage in the movement of thought, grief, and self while witnessing each other in story and tending the fire. Each month will vary slightly depending on the weather and the group's decision.
Register Here
3rd Thursday, 1-3pm
This group offers a monthly opportunity to explore what lies within, waiting to be said. Whether you feel called to share or not, every participant will contribute to creating a compassionate and supportive circle of witnessing. Every meeting will involve an opportunity to go inward and reflect through expressive writing, with the invitation to share. No writing experience is necessary. We all have unique, beautiful, and sometimes painful truths that deserve to be expressed and witnessed.
Register Here
Community Care Book Club
3rd Sunday, 2-3:30pm
A Sacred Passing is hosting a virtual Community Care Book Club, gathering on the third Sunday of the month on Zoom at 2pm PST. You do not have to read the full book to attend (as long as you are okay with spoilers)!
July - The Little Bloom Book by M Abeo (facilitated by M)
August - Tending Grief by Camille Sapara Barton (facilitated by Asha)
Register Here
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Thanks for helping us toward sustainability!
We invite you to donate directly and sign up to volunteer.
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Bereaved Sibling Support Group
2nd Monday, 6:30pm MST (Mountain Time)
No charge to attend, peer-led (18+). Call or email Tawnya to request a warm intro, details, and access. 719-430-5272, tawnya@deardepartures.com
Road End Farm
deadfolxfarm.org
Road End Farm exists to expand the choices available to our unhoused and under-resourced neighbors, when they are sick or when it is time for them to die, by providing a community clinic, tiny hospice homes, and street-based palliative and hospice care.
Dear Grief
https://maicortezdoan.com/
A space for writing & processing grief, online via Zoom
Dear Grief is for anyone seeking community and guided practice around grief. In this space we connect to ourselves, each other, and the earth, engaging with writing as a tool for processing grief. You do not need to have writing experience or identify as a writer to join. All are welcome <3
| | Thank You, Artist Contributors 💛 | | | |
This Collapse is Not a Vacuum
Asha
there are matchsticks
too polite to ignite
as if their flames are dangerous
offensive even
and so instead
they wait in dread
of the final flood
secretly grateful for its promise
to extinguish fires
they are too timid to set
there are matchsticks
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I Knew We Would Meet Again
the good witch of cascadia
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These five zines offer an opportunity to reflect on death and its relationship to life. Topics range from the ways our lives influence those who come after us to personal reflections on the intertwined grief at the loss of family members and the extinction of species.
- Are We the Afterlives of Our Sandwiches?: a zine About Reincarnation
- the dead provide a home for us living: a zine about deep time
- An Empty Niche: a zine about relationships with ecosystems and family, lost and gained
- Death is Connection, Not Separation: a zine about assimilation into the web of life
- To Light a Candle is to Cast a Shadow: a zine about the role of art in our relationships with the community of life
Each one is printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into an eight-page zine. Pricing is on a sliding scale, so choose what you pay!
Find the bundle here
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Share your events, art, writing, and more with ASP!
We are excited to grow this magic web and share the many things happening in the deathcare community.
Please write "Newsletter" in the subject heading and include all details (i.e. date/time, description, links, and any photos or graphics).
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Thank you for continuing to exist on this planet with the rest of us
walking puffs of stardust.
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