Today I want to talk about taking ownership. As we own that ’tis the holidays and we have shopping, decorating, wrapping, and overeating to do… I’m talking about taking ownership of your own goodbye plans.

’Cause I’ve observed something in my four years of experimenting with this: Lots of people like this I Want a Fun Funeral idea. They laugh, they enthusiastically nod their head, they insist that Yeah… that’s what I want, I’ve always said that!

And then they do nothing about it.

In two seconds they return to the comfy bubble of death amnesia: like it’s not real, ever-present, and literally quite possible (if unlikely) in the very next second. I’ve never wanted to approach this topic like a threat, because that’s so not fun and my whole MO is fun at all costs.

But people! To love the idea of wanting something different, something unique and maybe even fun, and at a minimum reflect your personality, and then do nothing… nadasquat about it — that is living in LaLa Death Denial Land.

No, you don’t have to run a red light or leave your two-year old in the tub unattended to go confer with your local funeral home. But relegating it to the back burner, I promise you, is a death sentence for your lovely going away party. Sure, your family might plan something fabulous for you, but you’re still leaving them all the burdens of figuring it out themselves. (And you have deprived yourself of the joy of being involved, which I wrote about here.)

That is called not owning that you are going to one day leave here, and that something has to be done on that occasion. Whether you’re consigning your handsome corpse to a body farm for research or wanting a traditional Lay Me Out in Full Glory viewing and burial—it’s time, laws, rituals, decisions, emotions, logistics, and last and hardly least, a legacy… whether you care about that or not.

So not with a threat, but with an invitation… a plain and simple reality check→

OWN the occasion of your farewell.

I’m here to make that process preposterously fun, meaningful, and even life-changing.

There is nothing to gain by evading your eventual departure. Stop envisioning a boring, ‘same old’ funeral. Those days are over, friends. Let me open your eyes to a whole new world of farewell wonderment that just may, if I’m doing my job, transform for the better the way you see death, life, and everything in between.