The Last Adventure of Life: Sacred Resources for Transition by Maria Dancing Heart is a book I hold very dear. What I try to do with my videos, Maria Dancing Heart has done with this book. It is a compilation of many resources to offer guidance, viewpoints, suggestions for those of us on our end of life journey.
It is full of ideas and suggestions regarding death. Some topics are banishing fear, trust, understanding why, three temptations at the time of death, not clinging to your loved one, every death is a birth … and much more.
This beautiful book also has beautiful and unusual quotes sprinkled throughout. The following example includes an alternative translation of a Bible verse.
And dying you will leave your body as effortless as a sigh.
— Psalm 121:8 (Stephen Mitchell’s translation)
Examples such as these make this book a delight. For those of us who appreciate thinking of things in new ways, this book is a gift from heaven.
I knew Maria and talked with her regarding this book before it was published. Sadly I did not know her well. And even more sadly, Maria died surprisingly young in a traffic accident. But my, oh my, with all the wisdom she had demonstrated in her book, I bet she had a beautiful death.
Following is her obituary:
Obituary: Rev. Maria Dancing Heart Hoaglund passed away on Friday, April 22, 2016. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, the daughter of Lutheran missionaries. She attended Japanese public schools and was bilingual and bi-cultural. After international high school in Japan, she graduated from Yale University and received a Masters of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary. She began her ministry at Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu, HI, where she was ordained in the United Church of Christ, serving as minister in U.C.C. churches in Hawaii and the Seattle area. In 1995, she became a hospice bereavement coordinator, while serving as a spiritual counselor and performing weddings and memorials. Maria is the author of “The Last Adventure of Life: Sacred Resources for Transition” (July, 2005), and “The Most Important Day of Your Life: Are You Ready?” (June, 2010). Her books and holistic resources counseled readers to be comfortable preparing for death. She is survived by her daughter, Heather Hoaglund-Biron; and her sisters, Janet Hoaglund and Linda Hoaglund. They honor the memory of Maria’s service to others.