Michael Dowd
November 19, 1958 - October 7, 2023
Michael Dowd lived a life of love in action and he thrived in the thrill of being alive! On Saturday October 7, while in his sleep, he returned to the infinite joy that he had never left.
Michael died in New York where he went to be present for his father’s final hospice moments. His father died Thursday October 5th and Michael stayed after his death to continue to work through the process.
Michael was staying at a friend’s house, took a fall helping clear dishes, opted not to go to the hospital despite feeling the effects of the fall, and did not survive the night. An autopsy and cremation will precede his final resting. These simple facts fail to capture the arc of the man and his life.
Added detail: After his autopsy, it was discovered that Michael dies from a massive heart attack due to long term undiagnosed heart disease. His fall was caused by the beginning of that end and was a symptom not a direct cause.
I’m not one for tradition. Others may be. I don’t claim to understand what Michael would have wanted but I do believe he always sought to inspire everyone he met to live fully with gratitude as if it could be your last year, last season, last month, last day. One last hug. One more glance. One more joke. One last laugh.
One last opportunity to watch a bird fly overhead and alight on the withered branch of a dead tree leaning over a river. Life and death, guts and glory, all captured in a single breathtaking moment that leads by necessity to the next, equally breathtaking moment. A post-doom death in a pre-doom world asks us to rise to the moment with joy, love, gratitude, and grief. I accept the challenge and the gift. Thank you, Michael.
I wish I could have hugged him in person. I’ve gotten his “cyberhugs” in many emails. They always felt real, and I’m not someone who feels things like that. Years spent reaching out of his persona from stages, pulpits, and computer screens honed his ministering to a fine point and he cyber and live hugged his way through all these mediums with ease. His electric, surround sound version of loving attention was wild and joyful to experience. His limitless curiosity and bombastic reverence for life never ceased to compel me to want to lean into my life with more authenticity. He could challenge, cajole, compel, and confuse with grace. I loved the man.
Michael has many close associates, friends, colleagues and co-conspirators. Whether you knew him or just knew of him, his work lives on through us. As we all grieve and allow the necessary stillness of the moment to saturate lets actively imagine the ongoing love-in-action living with gobsmacked joy that always lay at the core of Michael’s message. There is always work to do, service to offer, love to share. Saturday was a good day to die. Let’s make today a good day to live.
Michael Dowd November 19, 1958 - October 7, 2023
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dowd
Michael and his father Pete Dowd March 2005 - Breakneck Ridge, above the Hudson River
Michael’s work lives on at www.PostDoom.com
Post Doom work is interactive and invites everyone to participate. Join the weekly Post-Doom No-Gloom calls to continue in Michael’s mission:
There are many support groups active with weekly or monthly calls
For general information on the calls visit: https://postdoom.com/discussions/
This announcement was lovingly prepared by Jordan Perry and Peter Melton with approval from Michael’s beloved wife and partner Connie Barlow.
2023.10.10 On the Passing of Michael Dowd Oct. 7, 2023
Why now? Had he achieved all his purpose was for this lifetime? There is no argument that he was a titan of collapse awareness and acceptance, while also pursuing the love-in-action and grief that knowledge entailed. His body of works will live on for others to learn from, but still, why now?
Michael passing should remind us all that we have to experience life to grow. That he did. As he stated in these predicament-laden times compassion is a requirement for us to practice towards each other, towards all sentient and non-human beings and life, and that love-in-action should be our working guide.
Michael was a pillar of focus about reality. His words and the words of his friends about our global predicament must now be dispersed world-wide by others, by us. Michael knew about fragility and the possibility of death and greeted those possibilities with a sacredness we all have to learn if we do not already know it firsthand.
Even within the collapse awareness/acceptance community, the power of Michael’s message was growing, but now it is our responsibility – each one of us - to accelerate that broadcast to achieve a critical mass of predicament consciousness, not that it will “save” us or much of life on this planet, but because that is what evolution wants humanity to learn and is what must be done.
The love of family, the ability to love daily, be compassionate daily, and become the eye of the coming storm is Michael’s legacy: Michael’s individual strength was monumental, but as a community growing in this consciousness we have the opportunity now to exponentially help a higher consciousness unveil as we ourselves become awakened to its draw upon us.
Thank you Jordan, Peter, and especially, Connie... Thank you all.
These are lovely words, a good first draft.
I hope to see (and will generate my own) many more messages like this one.
These are the most challenging times in human history.
We had a priceless gift in Michael Dowd.
How he and Connie so generously have given over their lives to
Serving Life. This is precious indeed.
I offer a deep bow to brother Michael Dowd.
Thank you, Thank you.
Dean Walker