Live & Die
Awake
Love. Loss. Living Fully.
At 3:33 on a Thursday afternoon, Julie’s husband Jim took his last breath, their sons each holding one of his hands. “My soul did not break. It cracked wide open.” Live and Die Awake is the story of a great love, a sacred dying, and the unraveling and rebuilding that followed. It is also a hand reaching back for the reader, into a season of love, loss, and becoming.
Not a book to be read.
A book to be walked through.
Julie’s husband Jim died within three weeks of a sudden diagnosis. Live and Die Awake is the account of those three weeks, and of the years that followed: the descent into grief, the slow witnessing of it, and the rising into a life of presence, love, and grace.
The book flows through Julie’s personal story, followed by guided meditations and reflection pauses that invite the reader into their own journey. The arc moves through what Julie has come to call the Living and Dying Awake Framework: descension, witnessing, rising.
It is written for anyone moving through loss in any of its forms: a divorce, a move to a new city, a job that is gone, an identity that no longer fits, the death of someone loved. It is for hospice workers, death doulas, and clinicians. It is for anyone asked to keep living while carrying a loss the world has stopped asking about.
“Death is not only about how we die. It is about how fully we choose to live.”
“We do not rise in spite of the ashes. We rise from them.”
“Grief is not a problem to be solved. It is a doorway opening into living into the light.”
Excerpts forthcoming from the manuscript.
In honor of those we love.
The full dedication is held until the release.
Write to Julie
about the book.
Questions, review copy requests, launch-event invitations, or just a note. Julie reads every message herself.