This vigil features author Pixie Lighthorse, best known for the Prayers of Honoring series, written to restore bonds between people and nature while healing interior patterning and spiritual/religious trauma. At this vigil, Pixie will discuss The Wound Makes the Medicine, her newest and most personal book: a collection of healing remedies in thought and prose that centers on the internal challenges of suffering and heartache and offers affirmations for seeing pain through, rather than avoiding it. The Wound Makes the Medicine helps create conditions of change within, without force, to allow transformation to occur. Joining Pixie is Elizabeth Johnson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Peaceful Presence Project, an organization reimagining and transforming the way that communities talk about, plan for and experience the last stage of life. Dr. Chinasa Elue -- grief coach, educator, and Reimagine community collaborator -- leads the honor ceremony.

Pixie Lighthorse

Author Pixie Lighthorse has created over 50 original online educational courses applying integrative transformative practice, animal and plant studies into self-healing soul work. She is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and writes as Lighthorse to honor the unheard voices of her ancestors.

In 2019, she wrote Goldmining the Shadows, the companion to her 2017 book, Boundaries & Protection: Honoring Self, Honoring Others. Her 2023 release is The Wound Makes the Medicine, published by Row House Publishing. She recently completed an all-ages illustrated book, Earth Is Holding You, with artist Flora Bowley. She's currently creating the fourth installment in the Prayers of Honoring series, as well as a book of poetry.

She received her training as a healer between 1999-2012. She grew up amid farms, ranches, animals and wildlife in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She studied literature and art at Cal State Northridge, currently studying indigenous liberation and sovereignty at Oregon State University.

https://www.pixielighthorse.com/ @pixielighthorse

Elizabeth Johnson

Elizabeth Johnson is Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Peaceful Presence Project, an organization with the mission of reimagining and transforming the way that communities talk about, plan for and experience the last stage of life.. With a Master's degree in Community and Urban Planning, Elizabeth has travelled the globe as an educator and facilitator, awakening her fascination with the cultural and social contexts which shape human understanding of the mysteries of life and death.

Elizabeth is a member of the Board of Directors for the Central Oregon Council on Aging. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance and served on their Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Elizabeth is passionate about integrating death and grief literacy initiatives in local communities and encouraging honest dialogue around the complexities of the dying process.

https://thepeacefulpresenceproject.org/

Dr. Chinasa Elue

Dr. Chinasa Elue is a professor, speaker, grief coach, and CEO and Founder of True Titans Consulting Group. She provides strategic coaching and consulting to organizations moving forward to make impactful changes in the midst of uncertainty with empathy and care. She is also an associate professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education at Kennesaw State University. Her research focuses on grief leadership, trauma-informed leadership practices in organizational settings, and the health and well-being of historically marginalized and underrepresented populations. Dr. Elue is also the host of the Grieving in Color Podcast, a podcast that explores the various ways we navigate our experiences with grief and loss and a place where we find the courage to intentionally heal in our daily lives. Dr. Elue’s work has been published in numerous academic journals and has also been featured in USA Today, DiversityInc, Better Homes & Gardens, and VoyageATL.

https://www.drchinasaelue.com/ @drchinasaelue