This is a re-release of Season 7 episode 9 with Gretchen Miura.

Gretchen and Sarah run Lighthouse Circle together, and cohort 6 is now open. You can read more here - https://www.sarahfuruya.com/grief-support-lighthouse-circle-2025

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Listen to Sarah and Gretchen talk about Gretchen’s life story and how following Dragons became a golden thread in her story. We touch on grief and how it weaves into full life story. It is part of the fullness of a life lived and expressed. Below is the original podcast that prompted the whole Lighthouse Circle as we spent the entire conversation talking about Gretchen’s loss, when she was 5 and her big brother, Chris was 17.

Gretchen is outstandingly generous in her storytelling and we uncover a string of coincidences that led to this being called the ‘Legend of Dragons’.

This is a re-release of Season Three Episode One of the Legends Podcast with Gretchen Miura & Sarah Furuya.

This was the genesis of the Lighthouse Circle Grief Support group. We are now open for Cohort 6 - https://www.sarahfuruya.com/grief-support-lighthouse-circle-2025

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Introducing Gretchen Miura Legend of Healing. Gretchen is a mindfulness teacher, avid maker and mother of four. Originally from New Jersey in America, Gretchen lives in northern Japan on the Oga peninsula where she and her husband run a Zen temple. She hosts mindfulness retreats, classes and workshops in English, as well as traditional ceremonies and activities for the local community. She sells her handmade bento bags, face masks and accessories at her online shop SORAbento. She is living a life focused on creativity, belonging and connection.

This episode is dedicated to Chris.

When Gretchen was 5, her 17 year old brother died in a car accident. This is the backdrop of her life since then. In this conversation Gretchen takes us on the journey of Chris, his death , her family, religion, and her path to acknowledging, dealing with and healing the suffering attached to her loss. And in fact the family loss.

We talk about Catholicism, Buddhism and try and tease apart the humanity of grief and loss, of joy and living. How her 4 children taught her so much about her brother, through the tenderness of the relationship of her youngest daughter and oldest son.

Gretchen and her temple and family are quite well known and she has appeared in an NHK documentary about her temple and the people around it. She is something of a celebrity in the area!

This is a deep and rich conversation that goes into the depth of grief, the rituals surrounding death. All the way to the end more and more learnings come out between us and we will have a part 2 later in the year because we didn’t even touch on Gretchen’s hilarious journey to being the parent of 4 and married to a Zen priest in a remote peninsula in Northern Japan!

- The surprising joy the has come from meeting her grief

- Having authority over the suffering

- The first and second arrows of loss

- That’s all there is! Hear her thoughts on enlightenment

- Facing and dealing with grief creates fertile ground for magical experiences

- Grief, love, life and ritual

- How her children brought her closer to connecting to her brother

- How faith brought the family through Chris’ death yet she struggled to connect with that same faith

- How she connects and can continue to connect with Chris

- Incidents that allowed stress to be dissolved

- We have to take of one another

- Universal truths and satori

Links & where to find her here:

Dairyuji Temple Instagram

Dairyuji temple in Oga Akita

Zeb Soto Sect

Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

Online Shop: Sorabento

Griefworks by Julia Samuel

The word I was scrambling for is ‘flippant’.

In this deeply moving and thought-provoking episode of the Legends Podcast, host Sarah Furuya sits down with the miraculous Matthew Dons, a figure who has not only transformed his own life but has profoundly impacted the world around him over the past eight years. This is the final episode of Season 8, themed Skin in the Game, and it brings a powerful close with insights on life, death, and the miraculous experiences that shape our journeys.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Matthew’s Miracle: The extraordinary story of Matthew Dons and the miraculous transformations in his life, particularly in the face of death.
• Facing Mortality: How Matthew's confrontation with his mortality has reshaped his view of the world, life, and the choices he makes every day.
• The Power of Presence: What it means to be truly present in life when you are living with a terminal diagnosis, and how that presence transforms relationships, ambitions, and daily experiences.
• Lessons on Death and Dying: Matthew shares the insights he has gained from walking a path many fear, offering listeners a unique perspective on accepting death as a natural part of life.
• Inspiration for Others: This episode is not only about Matthew's experience but also serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration for others who may be grappling with their own challenges.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would come and say hi over on @sarahfuruyacreative on Instagram.

About Matthew

Matthew Dons is a marketing consultant and business coach from the UK. He has been living in Tokyo since 2007.

Matthew came to Japan to study traditional Japanese martial arts. His other hobbies include baking, studying the history of technology and watching 80’s films.

In July 2016 Matthew was suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer, also known as stage 4 cancer. The cancer had spread a lot so his life expectancy, with treatment, was just 7-9 months. Although crowdfunding and cutting-edge immunotherapy have helped him live almost 8 years so far, he’s still in a life-and-death fight every day.

Although Matthew is very cynical, he was genuinely shocked to discover there’s no serious effort in any country to stop people dying of cancer. This is despite the fact cancer kills around 10 million people every year, and it destroys the lives of many more people. It’s a brutal disease, with equally-brutal treatments. Experiencing this firsthand motivated him to set up the non-profit Make Cancer History.

Make Cancer History connects patients, oncologists and researchers to share cancer knowledge and save lives.

Connect with Matthew & Donate

https://www.matthewdons.org

https://www.makecancerhistory.jp/

https://www.makecancerhistory.jp/donate/

Connect with Sarah

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sarah-furuya-creative

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahfuruyacreative/

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