What might we find when we embrace grief rather than turn away from it? Can bereavement and beauty co-exist? And how can we navigate our fear of death? From existential overwhelm to the therapeutic powers of writing, psychedelics, and connecting with strangers, author of Dying to Live: Finding Life’s Meaning through Death Andy Chaleff—whose mother died in a drunk driving accident hours after he gave her a soul-baring letter—discusses befriending mortality and the silver lining of sorrow.

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Ben and I got together on Zoom the other day and had a short albeit rich discussion about different kinds of grief. The different layers of grief, the different names for grief. And in doing that I started thinking about how pivotal grief is in our lives and how sad it is that we spend most of our life running away from it, trying to ignore it or making excuses for it.

We’re going to continue this discussion. We just hadn’t talked in a while and Ben called to check in and there you have it. I hope you’ll take a minute and see if there’s something in it for you.

Love,

Sean

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Have you ever found yourself questioning how much you can let yourself be seen?

How open you want to be about how you really feel about something?

How honest you are comfortable being with friends and family, how safe you feel in different relationships?

And when we know someone needs us to be a certain person, to show up in their life in a certain way, how does that feel when it is not how we are feeling inside in that moment?

Join Ben and I as we discuss the truth, the trust, the risks and the reality of being who we really are. No matter what. All the time.

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Please join me as I welcome Isa Catto to this episode of Where the Veil Grows Thin.

Isa Catto's daughter, Bailey, left Colorado for a dream job on Broadway. A charismatic, intellectual, smart, funny young woman, Bailey died just days after graduating high school when she took a drug laced with Fentanyl.

Isa graciously agreed to come talk about what Bailey's life was like up until that moment and how her death has disrupted, shattered and reshaped their lives.

For more on Isa, please subscribe to her Substack – Swimming at Altitude

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Join Ben and I as we explore the random encounters in life and the depth and richness that can be found in those moments. We talk about the way reminders of mortality, whether our own or someone else’s, change us. And what we do with what we learn when we wake up and step out into the world.

Next episode I'll be welcomg Isa Catto to Where the Veil Grows Thin. You can learn more about her at isacatto.com.

Ben briefly mentioned dyingtoserve.com in this episode.

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Defining faith is a personal, intimate thing to be asked to do. Join Ben LeRoy and I as we step into the conversation that lead us to realize that what we were talking about was just that; a definition of faith. Different for everyone. And important to have if we want to be able to move through our days and nights and come out relatively intact.

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Join Ben and I as we talk about the idea of metastatic joy and goodness; the question of how to spread goodness and the idea that it is so ingrained in us to not talk about the things we do that are good, that we forget how important it is to talk about the good things others are doing in our communities thus inspiring more of that to grow.

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.

Recently I shared the poem "Proxy" by Gloria Heffernan. Join me now in listening to my conversation with her about the way grief and loss have helped her learn the importance of being a peaceful presence in the world.

About this episode of Where the Veil Grows Thin:

Gloria Heffernan is the author of the poetry collection, What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List (New York Quarterly Books) and Exploring Poetry of Presence: A Companion Guide for Readers, Writers, and Workshop Facilitators (Back Porch Productions). She has also written two chapbooks, Some of Our Parts (Finishing Line Press), and Hail to the Symptom, (Moonstone Press).

Gloria’s work has appeared in over 100 journals including Chautauqua Literary Journal, Presence, Columbia Review, Stone Canoe, The Healing Muse, and Yale University’s The Perch. She has been a Pushcart nominee, and a finalist in the Grayson Poetry Chapbook Contest, a finalist in the Naugatuck River Review’s Narrative Poetry Contest, and winner of Third Wednesday’s One Sentence Poetry Contest. She holds an M.A. from New York University and teaches at Le Moyne College and the Downtown Writers Center in Syracuse, New York. Gloria serves as copy editor for Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry and served for two years as an assistant poetry editor for Stone Canoe. She is also a workshop facilitator with a focus on poetry as a spiritual practice.

Learn more about Gloria at her website -- https://gloriaheffernan.wordpress.com/

Thank you for listening to Where the Veil Grows Thin.
You can always get these wherever you get your podcasts or for more information, visit seanjeung.com.