Job Opening: Doula for a Dying World
multiple positions open!
Welcome to The Practice of Life — a place to slow down, befriend yourself, and connect with the world from kindness and awareness.
Everything here is freely offered without paywalls. If you appreciate what you find here, please consider a free or paid subscription, or a one-time donation. Your financial support creates possibilities for me to spend more time on writing, including a memoir-in-progress.
As our beloved Earth hurtles toward momentous transition, we are seeking brave and compassionate humans to help shepherd us through this threshold. Could this be you?
RESPONSIBILITIES
Provide emotional, spiritual, practical, and/or medical support to individuals who are beginning to realize that we are coming to the end of life on our planet as we know it.
Be able to tend to your own grief so that you can show up fully and assist people to regulate their nervous system and emotional landscape so they are able to touch into peace and acceptance.
Know that this peace and acceptance co-exists with a burning love for the Earth and all her creatures. This inspires continued engagement and fierce protection of what we still have left and what is yet to be created. In other words, the kind of peace you will facilitate is not about surrender but about boundless love.
Other responsibilities will vary depending on your location, the needs in your community, and your Core Intention. Possibilities might include: starting and tending a community vegetable garden; cooking nourishing foods; creating works of art; teaching children; helping people connect with our ancestors through rituals; providing tech support; and much more…. the possibilities are endless, the needs will be great.
QUALIFICATIONS
Must be willing to allow your heart to break completely open.
Must be intimate with the journey of loss and grief, and willing to not turn away but rather look it in the eye and surf with the waves of emotion. Familiarity with Roshi Joan Halifax’s G.R.A.C.E. model is incredibly helpful.
Ability to dance with extreme differences of perspective. In many cases you will be working with people with views that are completely the opposite of yours and you must be able to love and serve them, without hesitation. No one excluded. Deep respect and curiosity for the cultural background of each person you come into contact with.
Ability to dance—literally—is also super helpful, as is a great sense of humor
Community building and organizing
Self care skills are absolutely essential. You will find yourself running ragged and at times there will be no way to take a break. Yet you must be able to draw on a deep reservoir and find ways to continue to fill it with love, joy, desire, and kindness.
An incredible support system of family and/or friends who will never stop loving you and bringing you a cup of tea to help you keep going. You can’t do this alone.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
You’ll be working outside the capitalist model, so please do not expect a standard wage. Be open to creative models of reciprocity. You might come home with a basket of fresh vegetables grown by your new clients, a hand-knitted sweater, a treasured book or poem. Shared living space and food may be part of compensation. Any option based in relationship rather than transaction will be infinitely more valuable than a paycheck.
A deep sense that you are doing the right thing, at the right time. With that comes a kind of joy you may never have known before.
HOW TO APPLY
Just show up – you’ll be needed everywhere.
Tip: You’ll be a great fit for this job if you don’t care about having any letters after your name. Not necessary for this position, and in fact can be a distraction from what’s most important.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
WORK WITH ME ONE-TO-ONE
My Guidance and Encouragement (G+E) sessions are a unique blend of mentoring, resource connections, and spiritual guidance customized to your needs. G+E sessions are especially useful when you’re in a transitional time (shifting careers, changes in relationships, moving to a new area, etc.) and seeking support to navigate these changes in the most beneficial way. G+E sessions are also about walking with you as you find your way through these transformational times. Something more beautiful is waiting on the other side for all of us, I have faith in that. These sessions are a means of co-creating that future.
Founding members of The Practice of Life receive a complimentary G+E session each year, but these sessions are available to everyone on a sliding scale basis.
LOOKING FOR SUPPORT TO CREATE RIGHT LIVELIHOOD?
Check out my book Work That Matters: Create a Livelihood that Reflects Your Core Intention (Parallax Press, 2017)
I’m in! And can’t lose with co-workers like you.
Sorry slow responding… I wasn’t sure what to say! But I have a new connection that is helping. A social media friend and I recently did a shared breathing/mindfullness/Tonglen session together remotely— kinda different but very helpful! We’re both kinda hybrid Buddhists, so we’ve connected well. And it’s motivated me to get back to nightly metta practice as well!