Threads of Our Matriarchs
Join facilitators Kelli Dillon and Mangda Sengvanhpheng in this gathering to honor the legacy of the woman or women who mothered us. We’ll nurture our relationships to our mother figures by writing a Legacy Love Letter® and sharing our stories. We’ll close with a ritual – inspired by traditional Laotian baci ceremonies – in which participants virtually “tie” life-affirming blessings to one another, symbolizing heart-centered unity and interconnection.
Have something to write on or with. A nice stationery set, your favorite journal, and best-loved pen or if you prefer to type, bring your digital device.
About Reimagine
Reimagine's mission is to help all people face adversity, loss, and mortality, and channel the hard parts of life into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org
Reimagine continues to offer gatherings on holidays, often times of extreme vulnerability and grief. In particular, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, and winter celebrations in December can be difficult because of their traditional associations with family members and reunions. However, even in seasons of sorrow, reasons for gratitude and joy can be found. As physical distancing relaxes, it’s time to reimagine holidays and discover what matters most about these annual events.
Kelli Dillon
Kelli Dillon’s life work is an ode to the iconic artist Sade Adu's song lyrics: “We move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy.” As owner of Endpowered, Kelli is a licensed Willow End of Life Educator™creating safe spaces and facilitating open and honest communication for transformative personal discoveries, by guiding others through exploring our relationships with death, dying and legacy. If you are curious about discovering and implementing, heart-centered and pragmatic planning for a well-lived and love-filled life here and now, Endpowered is here to help you take brave steps to get clear on who and what matters most to you in this life, as we contemplate our inevitable death that may be minutes, days, months, or years away.
Mangda Sengvanhpheng
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, contemplative care practitioner, and the Founder of BACII. She is devoted to creating a deeper culture of care, transcending our circumstances, and expanding our experiences through the wisdom of impermanence. Mangda offers supportive services, regenerative programming, and intentional products for individuals, communities, and organizations alike. Her life and death work is guided by her Laotian last name, which means “the light of the full moon.”
BACII is inspired by all of her experiences with loss and life, and specifically the loss of her mother. This life-changing experience of helping her mother through the dying process included being with her in the final moments, washing and dressing her body, arranging a funeral service, and managing a household of tasks that come with death. This experience revealed to her how difficult and isolating grief and loss can be. This led her to reimagine our society’s relationship to the end-of-life as a healthier and more supportive experience.
Driven by these experiences, Mangda became a certified death doula through Going with Grace and an end-of-life volunteer. She then launched BACII as a platform to integrate death into our lives so that we can better support ourselves and those we love.
Additionally she has been immersed in the mystical, creative, and healing arts for over 15 years and is certified and trained in pranayama, asanas, and meditation with Bhooma Chaitanya and Swami Yogeshananda through Aarasha Yoga Vidya Peetham in Kerala, India, Reiki 2 accreditation by Joanna Crespo, NYC, 13th Octave LaHoChi accreditation from Soul Healing, CT, Grief Literacy from Be Here, and Contemplative Care from New York Zen Center.
Mangda was an awarded recipient of Reclamation Ventures grant for under-represented leaders making pathways to addressing grief and loss.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, NY Mag’s Curbed, Brydie, Chacruna Institute, Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish Wall Street Journal) and more.
