Sacred Journey
Empowering individuals and families to make informed choices about their end-of-life care,
in accordance with their values, wishes and beliefs.
Sacred Journey is a compassionate community dedicated to normalizing conversations about death, dying, and loss, and supporting a deeper understanding of the soul’s journey between life and the afterlife. We share resources, knowledge, and heartfelt support to help individuals and families plan for an intentional, meaningful end-of-life experience. Our mission is simple yet profound: to empower people to make informed, values-aligned choices about their last days. Whether you're exploring home funerals, green burials, or simply seeking clarity on end-of-life planning in North Carolina, we’re here to guide, educate, and support you with love and fellowship every step of the way.
Our next offering:
SINGING FOR COMFORT WORKSHOP
Sunday, February 22
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Vero Christo Studio, Lewisville
It has been said that singing predates the spoken word. Mythical creation stories tell of the cosmos being sung into existence through a heavenly chorus of vibrational tones and harmonies that brought life and love to Earth. With the awareness that singing can serve as a bridge between the spiritual and material worlds, we will explore together the healing power and essential elements of bedside singing to bring comfort and compassion to others.
Anyone can do this! It is our natural birthright to bring love through the voice to ease another's suffering and pain.
Workshop includes guidance, practice and songs to take home and share when they're needed most.
To sing is to heal; to sing is to share the deepest part of yourself. There is a divine power in the voice, especially when it’s used to comfort others.
– Yehudi Menuhin
“We plan for births with such care—what doctor we want, where we’ll deliver, even what music we’ll play in the room. But death, which comes to us all, we often leave to chance. The truth is, when you write down your healthcare directives, speak to your family about what kind of dying experience you want, and decide how you wish to be remembered or laid to rest, you give a great gift. You free your loved ones from guessing, guilt, and confusion. You give them clarity and peace. Death doesn’t have to be chaotic.
It can be sacred, intentional, and deeply human—if we dare to talk about it before it comes.”
— Barbara Karnes, RN, Hospice nurse and educator, author of Gone From My Sight
Education, support, and community for an intentional, sacred end of life.
Sacred Journey offers:
Informational Workshops:
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Introduction to an Intentional End-of-Life
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End of Life Considerations and Planning: A Guidebook
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Communicating Wishes to Family
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Intro to Green Burial and Natural Burial
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Advance Directives and Living Wills
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The Soul's Journey at the Threshold and Beyond
Community Gatherings:
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Community Threshold Song Circles
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Contemplative Discussion Groups
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Reading Group(s)
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Group Movie Nights
The Wind Phone
All are invited to visit our local Wind Phone, a thoughtful space with a disconnected telephone where you can "call" departed loved ones. Take a quiet moment to speak from your heart to those you've lost. Perhaps you'd like to share recent news, recall a cherished memory, or express something left unsaid before they passed. Or perhaps words aren't necessary at all, you simply want to feel their presence in your thoughts and in the wind. Whatever you need, the Wind Phone is here for you.
This Wind Phone is located on Dalton Road in Lewisville, nearly one mile down on your left, tucked away in the pines between addresses 1010 and 1050. (Google map link)
The Original Wind Phone
The original Wind Phone was created in Japan by Itaru Sasaki while grieving his cousin who died of cancer. He purchased an old-fashioned phone booth and set it up in his garden. He installed an obsolete rotary phone that was not connected to wires or any "earthly system." Here, Itaru felt a continued connection to his cousin and found comfort and healing amid his grief. Itaru gave his phone booth a name, Kaze No Denwa (風の電話), translated as The Wind Phone.
The following year, in 2011, an earthquake (9.1 magnitude) resulted in a tsunami with 30-foot waves that obliterated the coast of Japan, destroying entire towns and taking thousands of lives. Many were swept out to sea, and their bodies never recovered. The city of Ōtsuchi is recorded with the highest number of missing persons. The tsunami's catastrophic ocean waves destroyed the town; its people were left in ruins by the tsunami of grief thrust upon them.
Itaru Sasaki salvaged his phone booth and relocated it on a windy hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the foot of the Kujira-Yama, next to the town of Otsuchi. He welcomed mourners to visit his phone booth to make calls to their friends and relatives lost in the great tsunami, hoping they would find a connection to help them cope with their grief as it did him.
Image by Matthew Komatsu
The Phone of the Wind is a shrine mindfully created to connect people to their loved ones on the other side. It is one of the world's most powerful resilience sites. Grievers travel from around the world to "call" their loved ones in spirit, to say the things they didn't get a chance to say while the person was living. It is a place that offers the peace and solitude grievers need to work through their pain. Itaru Sasaki has inspired the creation of many beautiful spaces worldwide to hold space for a griever—one where the wind will carry their words to those they love who have gone ahead.
The Wind Phone in the Garden of Bell Gardia is managed solely by Itaru Sasaki and his wife. They depend on a charitable foundation that supports the area. To donate, please visit their official website for further information.
To see more Wind Phones around the world, visit the My Wind Phone website.
The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca