Sacred Arc

Death is universal. The way we honor it is anything but. In this episode of Sacred Arc , we travel across cultures and through history to explore the rituals humans have created around death…from ancient Egyptian burial practices and Jewish shiva to Hindu cremation, Tibetan sky burial, Indigenous traditions, Día de los Muertos, New Orleans jazz funerals, Victorian mourning, green burial, and more....

What happens when grief seems to reach back? In this episode, Kimberley explores signs after death…dreams, songs, animals, scents, meaningful coincidences, and the moments that make us wonder whether the people we love are still somehow near. She shares personal experiences involving her mom, Isaac, hummingbirds, songs, and other moments that have carried meaning through grief, while also making r...

Some of the hardest parts of grief are the conversations that never happened. The apology you never got.
The words you never said.
The anger, guilt, regret, or love that still feels unfinished. In this episode, Kimberley explores what happens when someone dies before there is resolution and how healing may still be possible even when traditional closure is not. She shares practices like letter wri...

There comes a point in some serious illnesses when the question changes from, “What else can we do?” to “What will bring the most comfort now?” In this episode, Kimberley explores the deeply emotional difference between preserving life and prolonging suffering. From a death doula perspective, she talks about hospice, palliative care, quality of life, comfort-focused care, and the guilt families ca...

Most of us plan for birthdays, vacations, weddings, retirement, and the future we hope to have. But very few of us ever stop to ask one of the most important questions of all: How do I want to be cared for at the end of my life? In this episode, Kimberley explores death planning from a death doula perspective...not just the legal documents, but the deeply personal questions that help define comfor...

How do you grieve someone who is still here? In this episode, Kimberley explores anticipatory grief... the grief that can begin before a death actually happens. It can show up after a terminal diagnosis, during a long illness, through dementia or cognitive decline, or anytime you begin realizing that the person, relationship, or future you knew is changing in ways you cannot stop. This episode loo...

There are things about dying that can be frightening when we don’t understand them. In this episode, Kimberley shares what she has learned from sitting with people at the end of life, both as a death doula and through deeply personal loss. She talks about the normal physical changes that can happen as the body begins to slow, why those changes are not always signs of suffering, and how presence ca...

Why are we so afraid to talk about the one experience that all humans share? In Season five, we explore Death. Inspired by graves in Belize marked with a person's "sunrise" and "sunset," Kimberley reflects on our fear of death, the difference between death and dying, and the many things that may live beneath the fear...pain, separation, uncertainty, loss of control, leaving...

The term generational trauma is everywhere right now. But what does it actually mean? In this episode, Kimberley explores how unresolved pain, beliefs, coping mechanisms, and patterns can move through families, often without anyone realizing it. She also looks at the language we use to describe difficult relationships....and why not every ex is a narcissist, every incident isn't generational t...

When people talk about grief, they usually talk about the obvious loss. The person who died. The relationship that ended. The life that changed. But what about the losses that come afterward? In this season finale of Sacred Arc , Kimberley explores the often-overlooked secondary losses of grief: the loss of identity, the loss of future plans, the loss of safety, the loss of friendships, the loss o...

How do you continue living after losing the person who felt like home? In this episode of Sacred Arc , Kimberley sits down with filmmaker, Hollywood stunt performer, writer, director, and widower John to discuss love, widowhood, invisible grief, and learning to carry loss after losing the love of your life. John shares the story of meeting his wife Donna in 1993, their nearly three-decade marriage...

What happens when grief challenges everything you thought you believed? For many people, loss doesn't just break the heart it shatters the foundations of faith, spirituality, meaning and identity. In this deeply personal episode of Sacred Arc, Kimberley explores her evolving relationship with spirituality after the deaths of her mother and son. Growing up in the church, she found herself drawn...

What does it mean to continue living after losing a child? In this deeply personal episode of Sacred Arc, Kimberley sits down with Adam, Isaac's father, for an honest conversation about fatherhood, grief, healing, spirituality, and learning to navigate life after unimaginable loss. Together they reflect on who Isaac was beyond the tragedy, the unique experience of fathers grieving a child, ret...

Why them and not me? It's a question that quietly follows many grieving people. Whether after the loss of a child, spouse, sibling, friend, fellow veteran, or someone lost to suicide, survivor's guilt can leave people carrying questions that never seem to have clear answers. In this deeply personal episode of Sacred Arc, Kimberley explores the emotional reality of survivor's guilt, inc...

What happens after survival? For many veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors, the hardest battles aren't always the ones fought in public. Sometimes the deepest struggles begin after coming home. In this episode of Sacred Arc, Kimberley sits down with veteran, father, community leader, and Rally Point Events founder Lance Yearby to discuss military service, trauma, resilience, purpos...

Every family carries stories. Stories about love, survival, resilience, heartbreak, and the people who shape us long before we understand their impact. In this episode of Sacred Arc, Kimberley sits down with her cousin Carol for a deeply personal conversation about growing up in the same family system while experiencing life in very different ways. Together they explore childhood memories, father...

Season 4 of Sacred Arc begins with a conversation about the power of storytelling. Over the last season, we explored many different forms of grief …the loss of parents, children, partners, siblings, grandparents, and beloved pets. But behind every loss is a person. A life. A story. And often, stories that have never been fully told. In this opening episode of The Stories We Carry, Kimberley reflec...

There are some people who know our story in a way no one else ever can. They remember the house you grew up in, the family traditions, the inside jokes, the childhood memories, and the versions of you that existed long before adulthood. When a sibling dies, it isn’t only the loss of a brother or sister. It can feel like losing a witness to your life. In this episode of Sacred Arc, we explore the o...

There are some losses that change a person forever. And child loss is one of them. In this deeply personal episode of Sacred Arc, we explore the unimaginable reality of losing a child...including sudden loss, illness, miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, losing an only child, and grieving while still parenting surviving children. Kimberley also shares personal reflections about her son, Isaac, he...

Losing a parent is more than losing a person. It can feel like losing part of your history, your foundation, your childhood, and the people connected to your beginning. In this episode of Sacred Arc, we explore the layered reality of parent loss including complicated relationships, grief mixed with guilt, unresolved pain, family role shifts, and the emotional experience of losing the people who kn...

Losing a partner or a spouse is more than losing a person. It's losing routines, shared history, imagines futures, and the quiet everyday moments that once shaped your life together. In this episode of Sacred Arc, we explore the layered grief of partner loss, identity shifts, complicated relationships and the painful reality of learning how to exist inside a life that no longer looks the way you e...

Mother’s Day can be beautiful. But for many people… it can also be incredibly painful. In this special episode, recorded on Mother’s Day itself, I talk about the complicated reality of grief during a holiday centered around motherhood, family, love, and connection. This episode is for: * the people grieving their mothers * the mothers grieving children * those carrying complicated relationships *...

For many people.... losing a grandparent is the first experience of grief. But, it's not always treated that way. Because it's expected. "Part of Life." Because people often assume it should be easier to process. In this episode, we talk about what this kind of loss actually feels like, beyond what people say about it. The connection grandparents often represent. The way their pr...

Pet loss is one of the most common experiences of grief...and one of the most minimized. In this episode, we talk about what it really feels like to lose a pet. Not something small and replaceable but as a meaningful relationship. Because grief isn't measured by category. It's shaped by connection. And, for many people, pets are part of their daily lives in a way that is constant, groundin...

In the first two seasons, we explored grief in a broader way. What it is, how it forms and how it shapes the way we move through life. But this season.... we're going closer. Into the griefs themselves. The specific types of loss people carry and the ways that those experiences live in us. In this episode, we open Season 3 by creating a foundation for what's ahead. A space that acknowledge...