Sharing time with Chloe this past month felt like a forest bath, a Maranasti “death awareness” meditation, and an expanse of dancing fireflies. I found myself numerous times throughout our conversations wanting to reach into the computer screen and bear hug her beautiful existence as she discussed her work as an end-of-life doula, a baby bird carer, and the way these two extremes demand the gift of her attention.

Bringing oneself into the present isn’t always easy, and Chloe is the first to admit this, but instead of refusing the distracted and disjointed parts, she recognizes that presence doesn’t need to look a certain way. Sometimes it involves falling apart and being present to discomfort. Other times it requires gratitude and recognizing the brevity of everything. For Chloe, presence is less a state of eternal Zen and more a refined attention to what is and then allowing that attention to reveal the inherent preciousness and sacredness of everything. Her Death & Birds column is a soaring contemplation on the sacred—transforming, expanding, reminding and restoring her many readers through her unflinching commitment to experiencing truth.

At some point in our lives, we all will be initiated into the language of impermanence, some through tragedy and others through death of a loved one or terminal illness. Often the deepest lessons in life come through hardship. While others cower, Chloe draws near. She stands on the cliff, teeters on the vital tension of opposites and through the alchemy of her attention, resolves duality into hushed and screaming beauty.