Graceful Passages

The Graceful Passages audio CD is a unique combination of music and reading with a focus on care for the dying. Messages spoken by spiritual leaders such as Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and others are accompanied by uplifting music by Emmy award winning composer Gary Remal Malkin. Endorsed by Growth House as an inspiring multi-faith resource. Listen to an eight-minute background interview with co-producer Michael Stillwater on how Graceful Passages was carefully designed over a five-year development period to provide support to the dying and bereaved. Interview conducted by Growth House President Les Morgan on 3 September 2002.

Product Information

Graceful Passages: A companion for living and dying

By Gary Remal Malkin, Michael Stillwater
Published by Companion Arts
Publication date: 2003
ISBN: 157731428X (audio CD)

Graceful Passages is an audio CD containing music with spoken passages from a variety of spiritual leaders and leaders in end-of-life care. Included are the voices of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Arun and Sunanada Gandhi and others. Based on an inclusive inter-faith model, it includes segments inspired by Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Confucian, Buddhist, Hindu, and American Indian traditions. Not all selections will resonate with all listeners, but there is something here for almost everyone. The moving musical score by Emmy award winning composer Gary Remal Malkin nicely complements the spoken material.

The elegant CD packaging includes a 76-page gift book featuring transcriptions of all spoken words, as well as writings by bestselling author Sam Keen, nationally-known palliative care physician Ira Byock, and author Kathleen Dowling Singh, Ph.D.

This unique audio product has been praised by many in the hospice community as an innovative approach to addressing the fear, anxiety, and denial associated with dying. The music reflects the experience which co-producer Stillwater gained as a hospice music thanatologist, using song to comfort the dying. Hospice and palliative care professionals interested in the use of music as a complementary tool can contact Wisdom of the World to receive a copy of "Grace in Practice: Clinical Applications for Graceful Passages" which gives suggestions for use of the product in caregiving settings. Special thanks to our friends at Wisdom of the World for making selections from this CD available for play on Growth House Radio.

Audio Tracks

• Letting Yourself Be Loved: Lew Epstein
• Returning Home: Tu Weiming
• The Gift of Life: The Very Rev. Alan Jones
• Walk On: Jyoti
• The End of Suffering: Thich Nhat Hanh
• Franciscan Blessing: Fr. Maximillian Mizzi, OFM Conv.
• In Your Blessed Hands: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
• Unconditional Love: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.
• We Are Not Alone: Arun & Sunanda Gandhi
• Be Here Now: Ram Dass
• The Welcoming: Michael Stillwater
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: Linda Tillery

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