Newsletter | January 2026

Dear One,

As we step into a new year, I find myself less interested in fresh starts and more interested in how we keep going—with honesty, and a little more tenderness. January often arrives with a mix of hope and heaviness, and I want to honor all of it.

This year, we'll continue offering courses that support not only those working in end-of-life care, but anyone who wants to live with more intention. We'll also be holding Grace and Grief Vigils as spaces to pause, to remember, and to be held in community. These offerings come from a belief I return to often: that grief, presence, and community belong in our everyday lives.

I remain deeply committed to the people who make this community what it is. That means caring well for our students, creating courses led by experienced and thoughtful facilitators, and continuing to strengthen what we've already built, including our care directory. It also means staying grounded in heart-centered communication and transparency.

I'm grateful for each of you who walks alongside us in this work. May this year meet you gently. May you feel supported in both living and letting go. And may you remember that you are not doing this alone.

With Gratitude & Hope,

Elizabeth Padilla, Founder

This is one of those pieces that makes you pause and think, Why haven't I tried this before? Written by CDC graduate Pam Sherman, this blog is a must-read for doulas drawn to the connection between nature, spirit, and conscious dying. Filled with gentle, imaginative ideas—from hospital rooms to guided meditations—it offers fresh inspiration for weaving nature into end-of-life care.

Pam Sherman, MA Contemplative Psychotherapy (aging and dying) is a CDC SPD 2025 grad and conscious dying coach, active in pollinator habitat re-wilding.

Community Spotlight

Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D., is an environmental poet, novelist, trauma scholar, and writing coach living in the American South. Her work spans poetry, essays, and ecofeminist philosophy, weaving together women's and LGBTQ+ experiences, spirituality, psychology, and the natural world. An advocate for environmental consciousness and gender and sexuality equality. Cassie's writing

bridges the personal and the ecological in deeply resonant ways. Her acclaimed books—including We Heal from Memory, Earth Joy Writing, and her most recent novel, Beaver Girl—reflect her commitment to the natural world and trauma-informed writing as pathways for healing and change. Beaver Girl was selected as the 2024 One Book, One Community selection for the city of Columbia, South Carolina, where she lives with her wife and their intergenerational queer family.

Everything Cassie teaches and writes carries the truth of mortality. From an early age, she understood that each life is unique, precious, and limited—a reality made

even more present as climate chaos increasingly touches our lives. Her work intersects naturally with end-of-life care through a shared reverence for the sacred cycles of life, death, and renewal. Cassie is honored to teach with the CDC community this spring, bringing practices that invite deeper connection with ourselves, each other, and the living world that holds us all.