The Nature of the Journey

Imagine guiding your person through their final journey with acceptance, empathy, connection, and presence. The Nature of the Journey is your heartfelt guide for this deeply personal experience. Crafted with the care of a trusted trail guide, Chalmers offers a holistic approach to cultivate the end-of-life journey.

Discover how the senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and beyond can inspire opportunities for moments of meaning, connection, presence, and pleasure. This book also explores the grief we carry, both before and after, the importance of worldview on how we face death, and how personal experiences shape this profound time.

At its heart, The Nature of the Journey underscores the importance of community. It reveals that dying is a deeply social event, highlighting the vital role of leaning on others and the comfort found in shared support. Let this guide be your gentle map to creating meaningful connections and finding solace during the final stages of life.

“The Nature of the Journey by Tracy L. Chalmers is a rich blend of inspired, personal and intimate content based on the author’s own profound experiences of working with people in the final stages of their lives. No matter where a reader is,  this book offers a deep intellectual understanding of the process of dying and the work of caring for the dying across physical, mental, emotional & spiritual planes. This book has the unique ability to meet the reader where they are. This complexity means that this guide is one that can be returned to and revisited over and again, in journeys of grief and loss, throughout a lifetime. In a fast-paced world with quick hit interactions and frantic, go-go-go lives, this book encourages the reader to slow down, pay attention and be aware of themselves and others.”

Sheona McDonald is an award-winning filmmaker, best known for directing, producing and writing the acclaimed series Transplant Stories, the feature length documentary Dead Man’s Switch a crypto mystery and the beautiful and compelling short film Into Light. Sheona is a board member of Factual West and a member of the Director’s Guild of Canada.

“A tender and wise guide, The Nature of the Journey supports you through the deeply relational experience of dying. With tenderness and wisdom, Tracy Chalmers reminds us that none of us has to navigate it alone. This book gently guides you in bringing someone to their final resting with care and grace.”

Angela E. Morris is the author of Love Notes to Grievers. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail and This Magazine, and through CBC Radio and Books, she’s connected with many by offering a caring and reflective perspective on grief.

“Nature of the Journey is the essential guide we all need as we confront not only our own mortality, but the deaths of those we care for. Like a gentle hand offering comfort, rooted in deep lived experience, wisdom, and knowledge, this book serves as a true companion. It guides us in caring for others at the end of life, while also reminding us to care for ourselves in the process. With its well-marked pathways, it reassures us that we already possess everything we need to support those in their final journey. Anchored in the present, it emphasizes the most precious element of this experience: connection. Tracy, the voice of care, compassion, and curiosity, has given us a gift—a resource that has been long missing for those seeking to understand what it truly means to die well, and support those we love as we walk them home.”

Willow Anne Meili, co-founder of The Grief Well, co-author of Grief Stories Journal, End of Life Doula.

“Chalmers offers a compassionate guidebook for what is often a confusing wilderness — the end of life. Filled with practical insights, thought-provoking exercises, and rich possibilities, she leads us toward a vision of death wrapped in understanding, ritual, and community. Within these pages are gems of wisdom and comfort, waiting to be discovered.”

Diane Hullet, M.Ed., Death Doula and Host of the Best Life Best Death Podcast

“The Nature of the Journey is an invaluable guidebook for anyone companioning a dying person. Full of pragmatic and compassionate insights, it provides a map for the journey as well as a balm for the soul. The writing is clear, and the format is easily digestible for those feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of navigating the unfamiliar terrain. Tracy Chalmers is an experienced death doula and a gifted teacher, and the guidance and practices she offers will help you find both compassion and courage in difficult times.” 

Sarah Kerr, PhD, Death Doula and founder of The Centre for Sacred Deathcare

The Nature of the Journey

ISBN: 9781998129447

$34.95 CAD | Paperback / softback

Height: 9"

Width: 7.5"

Pages: 360

Publication Date: October 28, 2025

End-of-Life Doula Tracy Chalmers is a facilitator at Endwell and Douglas College, co-founder and grief educator and tender at The Grief Well, Certified Forest Therapy Guide, and Hospice Volunteer. She is grateful and humbled to be living on Coast Salish land known as the North Shore of Vancouver, in British Columbia. A friend to grief and death and servant to many, Tracy also considers herself a perpetual student. She is of Norwegian, Swedish, Scottish, and English ancestry, and values her roles as mother, daughter, wife, sister, friend, listener, and lover of the natural world and all of life. The work that Tracy does honors and is supported by countless ancestors. Find her online at https://www.endwell.ca