A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America\'s preeminent death doula.
Hold that truth in your mind, Alua says, and wondrous things will begin to grow around it..
Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality.
Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care--what she calls death embrace.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page.
They wait for you.
She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life\'s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way.
Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life\'s calling.
And her best friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma.
She has suffered major, debilitating depressions.
Her family fled a murderous coup d\'état in Ghana in the 1980s.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death\'s periphery.
When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients\' anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments--when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud.
Aching, unfinished business often emerges.
The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air--or maybe not shown up at all--and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels.
As our country\'s leading death doula, she\'s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death--whether imminent or not--will breathe wild, new potential into your life. --Alua Arthur For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world.
By envisioning who I want to be on my deathbed, I invited life in.
A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America\'s preeminent death doula
