by Joie de Vivre
Every now and then you stumble upon something that changes your life.... even rarer are the instances when you come across something that changes the way you think.... and then there are those collective consciousness-changing occurrences that are so singular and profound that even as they happen, must be absorbed in stages: 1. we cannot quite grasp the idea, 2. we become adoring fans of it, 3. it seems so obvious we take it for granted and can't picture the world before it.
Case in point -- Columbus. He went looking for a terrestrial new world and inadvertently stumbled (ok, sailed) upon a new world of thinking.... on a cosmic level.... and nothing and no one has ever been quite the same since we learned we live on a sphere.
In my own travels, I have fallen into a few rabbit holes which have resulted in the changing of my interests, paradigms and even life path, always in wonderful satisfying ways. These days my primary means of transport is the internet. Given that my tastes run rampant and eclectic, it is not uncommon for me to have 50-70 internet windows open at any given moment (techies, feel free to cringe). At this very second, first thing in the morning, I have all the basic social media pages quietly at the ready, a couple of work-related how-to articles, some personal reading on my interests du jour (Einstein's last days and Zen Habits' take on minimalism) as well as reward pages -- those are the online treats I get to enjoy once I accomplish certain work tasks. These pages tend to skew deliciously geeky. Today's picks are a ticket order form to see the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the big screen over the next few weeks, and touring information on Soundgarden..... OK, when it involves Chris Cornell it transcends geeky and goes straight to rockstar cool.
So what does all this mindless rambling have to do with anything, the title of this post to be specific? It serves to show the blithe otherwise-engaged mindset we may be in when we hap-hazardly trip over something huge. This was the case when I found iLivediLoved.com. In truth, I have no idea how or why I found the site. I conduct so many name searches each day, with all their imaginable variations, that I come across some strange things indeed. And with the viral effect of the multiple social networking pages I frequent, online life is like a box of chocolates the size of our solar system.
This pretty site with the sweet name engaged me the instant I landed on it. Its warming buttercream palette and homespun calligraphic logo font invited me to take my shoes off and set a spell. As I explored the tasteful and unassuming site, it quickly became apparent that despite it's easy-breezy window dressing, its content was weighty and momentous. In bluntest terms, it is a site which allows us to come to grips with our own mortality.... Now don't click your mouse away just yet.... there is more... and it is beautiful.
With a tagline of The Gift of Goodbye, this thoughtful web-world enables members to share their lives with loved ones in an enduring and intimate way.
But there is plenty of experience and sweat that went into its formation, as well as careful thought and preparation. The creative team is a veritable triumvirate of marketing talent. Graphic designer Jeff has been working his artistic magic for nearly two decades, detailed developer JoJo has ten years' experience in both front and back end web development, and wordsmith Kristin has worked as a professional writer and editor for about twenty years... or so she claims.... during our phone conversation I could have sworn I was speaking with a wise and gracious-beyond-her-years teen! She expressed a genuine and contagious exuberance about both the business and her working relationship with her partners, who have dedicated the last two and a half years to their cherished project.
I asked the obvious questions -- what inspired the business, how has it evolved during development, what do you foresee it becoming -- many of the questions that their members will consider when looking at their own lives and chronicling them for loved ones.
They definitely offer far more than just a website! In my initial curiosity and excitement over the site, I signed up for a free membership... once I saw the inner-workings and prospects, I upgraded to a premium account. Sharing eternal and unlimited love with the people you care most about deserves the ability to do so unlimitedly.... hence, the premium account, which frankly is quite reasonable for what you get. Then again, I reasoned, 'They are a start-up biz and may not yet realize the dollar value of what they offer. So I better sign up before their reason sets in and/or their prices go up!'
Upon becoming a member I began creating my first message to a loved one, with nothing specific in mind, just for the fun of it. I was so deeply moved with love by the experience, it took me hours to get back to business normal. I'd addressed the message to my best friend and soulmate, and just oozed sugar about how much he means to me, and how colorful and enriching my life has been because of HIM. This soul-bearing exercise was liberating and life-affirming, neither melancholy nor melodramatic.
As a now semi-seasoned and happy member, I asked Kristin what she would wish the customer experience to be like. "We [want them to feel they have] a safe place to go and share their thoughts and memories and celebrate their life with the reassurance that their loved ones will remember them the way they want to be remembered -- [with] highly personal messages including photos, home video recordings, [whether it be a soldier] reading a bedtime story to his child [before being shipped out], or a 'hey' to the world, or a highly personal message to just one person."
In discussing what she would like the public to know, something that may not be mentioned on the site... a tough question since the site is extremely informative and efficient, Kristin said, "Anyone can start at any age, as a sort of personal journal -- the ups and downs of your life stored, safe from computer crashes, private and always secure."
Bingo! That is just what I envisioned when I first saw the site and its potential -- something akin to Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show, but on your own terms and very very real. I not only pictured aging seniors, people battling life-threatening illnesses and those in the armed forces joining the site in the face of their eventual passing. But I saw mothers using the site to chronicle their baby's first breath, first step, first communion -- just as they used to clip a lock of baby's hair to keep in a scrapbook. I see this site and all it stands for literally changing the way we celebrate our lives to the extent that our passing does not plunge our loved ones into darkness and despair -- because we will have left such a rich legacy and treasury on iLivediLoved that if family or friends feel pangs of missing us, they need merely take a healing dip into the pool of warmth and affection we have created for their ongoing enjoyment, in the form of images, videos, voice recording, memories, best intentions, well wishes, and love letters.... starting to get a little verklempt here...
So... what's next for this new internet darling? Nothing less than going global. People in other countries eventually depart this world too. And since partner JoJo speaks French the team is planning on translating the site into various languages. For now I have no doubt they will have their hands full dealing with the untold numbers of English-speakers they will have knocking on their virtual door, craving admittance into their inviting and cozy online habitat where individual lives are valued and meaningful relationships are memorialized. Here you will find more than just keepsakes, you will find humanity at its best.
Every now and then you stumble upon something that changes your life.... even rarer are the instances when you come across something that changes the way you think.... and then there are those collective consciousness-changing occurrences that are so singular and profound that even as they happen, must be absorbed in stages: 1. we cannot quite grasp the idea, 2. we become adoring fans of it, 3. it seems so obvious we take it for granted and can't picture the world before it.
Case in point -- Columbus. He went looking for a terrestrial new world and inadvertently stumbled (ok, sailed) upon a new world of thinking.... on a cosmic level.... and nothing and no one has ever been quite the same since we learned we live on a sphere.
In my own travels, I have fallen into a few rabbit holes which have resulted in the changing of my interests, paradigms and even life path, always in wonderful satisfying ways. These days my primary means of transport is the internet. Given that my tastes run rampant and eclectic, it is not uncommon for me to have 50-70 internet windows open at any given moment (techies, feel free to cringe). At this very second, first thing in the morning, I have all the basic social media pages quietly at the ready, a couple of work-related how-to articles, some personal reading on my interests du jour (Einstein's last days and Zen Habits' take on minimalism) as well as reward pages -- those are the online treats I get to enjoy once I accomplish certain work tasks. These pages tend to skew deliciously geeky. Today's picks are a ticket order form to see the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the big screen over the next few weeks, and touring information on Soundgarden..... OK, when it involves Chris Cornell it transcends geeky and goes straight to rockstar cool.
So what does all this mindless rambling have to do with anything, the title of this post to be specific? It serves to show the blithe otherwise-engaged mindset we may be in when we hap-hazardly trip over something huge. This was the case when I found iLivediLoved.com. In truth, I have no idea how or why I found the site. I conduct so many name searches each day, with all their imaginable variations, that I come across some strange things indeed. And with the viral effect of the multiple social networking pages I frequent, online life is like a box of chocolates the size of our solar system.This pretty site with the sweet name engaged me the instant I landed on it. Its warming buttercream palette and homespun calligraphic logo font invited me to take my shoes off and set a spell. As I explored the tasteful and unassuming site, it quickly became apparent that despite it's easy-breezy window dressing, its content was weighty and momentous. In bluntest terms, it is a site which allows us to come to grips with our own mortality.... Now don't click your mouse away just yet.... there is more... and it is beautiful.
With a tagline of The Gift of Goodbye, this thoughtful web-world enables members to share their lives with loved ones in an enduring and intimate way.
iLivediLoved is a website where members go to create goodbye messages for loved ones.
iLivediLoved works like a keepsake box of special memories. But it's digital, so all your personal letters, family photos and home videos are stored safely and securely online. And here's the twist. iLivediLoved holds the special messages and keepsakes you create for the rest of your life. Then, after you’ve passed away, your goodbye messages are delivered to loved ones to be cherished forever.Within moments of reading that homepage summation and clicking through the easily navigable pages, I stopped to ponder what I had found.... and then the dam of ideas burst in my brain as I considered the vast and resonant ramifications a site like this could have on individuals..... and even our entire culture as it pertains to the way we handle the passing of loved ones.... talk about celebrating a life! I admit I wondered if the creators of the site had any real inkling as to what they were onto. And so, I asked! I went the Contact Us route and just sort of gushed about the new existence-validating toy I had found in them. Much to my surprise I learned that their site is literally an infant... only a few days old at the time I wrote to them!
But there is plenty of experience and sweat that went into its formation, as well as careful thought and preparation. The creative team is a veritable triumvirate of marketing talent. Graphic designer Jeff has been working his artistic magic for nearly two decades, detailed developer JoJo has ten years' experience in both front and back end web development, and wordsmith Kristin has worked as a professional writer and editor for about twenty years... or so she claims.... during our phone conversation I could have sworn I was speaking with a wise and gracious-beyond-her-years teen! She expressed a genuine and contagious exuberance about both the business and her working relationship with her partners, who have dedicated the last two and a half years to their cherished project.
I asked the obvious questions -- what inspired the business, how has it evolved during development, what do you foresee it becoming -- many of the questions that their members will consider when looking at their own lives and chronicling them for loved ones.
iLivediLoved was developed because its creators discovered an unmet need. What if you could express your thoughts, memories and goodbye wishes to loved ones in email messages—and then have these messages delivered after you die?
Unlike other websites that memorialize people after they have already passed away, iLivediLoved takes a more "proactive" approach. iLivediLoved members decide what to write and who to write to, and they can add their own photos, videos and audio recordings to make each message even more personal and meaningful. And, most importantly, iLivediLoved members feel at peace knowing their final communications to loved ones will be received as a gift of goodbye to be cherished forever.
At iLivediLoved, we offer more than just a website —we offer people the power to create the ways they want to be remembered.
They definitely offer far more than just a website! In my initial curiosity and excitement over the site, I signed up for a free membership... once I saw the inner-workings and prospects, I upgraded to a premium account. Sharing eternal and unlimited love with the people you care most about deserves the ability to do so unlimitedly.... hence, the premium account, which frankly is quite reasonable for what you get. Then again, I reasoned, 'They are a start-up biz and may not yet realize the dollar value of what they offer. So I better sign up before their reason sets in and/or their prices go up!'
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| from my own message to Scott - our happiest place on earth to be together |
As a now semi-seasoned and happy member, I asked Kristin what she would wish the customer experience to be like. "We [want them to feel they have] a safe place to go and share their thoughts and memories and celebrate their life with the reassurance that their loved ones will remember them the way they want to be remembered -- [with] highly personal messages including photos, home video recordings, [whether it be a soldier] reading a bedtime story to his child [before being shipped out], or a 'hey' to the world, or a highly personal message to just one person."
In discussing what she would like the public to know, something that may not be mentioned on the site... a tough question since the site is extremely informative and efficient, Kristin said, "Anyone can start at any age, as a sort of personal journal -- the ups and downs of your life stored, safe from computer crashes, private and always secure."
Bingo! That is just what I envisioned when I first saw the site and its potential -- something akin to Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show, but on your own terms and very very real. I not only pictured aging seniors, people battling life-threatening illnesses and those in the armed forces joining the site in the face of their eventual passing. But I saw mothers using the site to chronicle their baby's first breath, first step, first communion -- just as they used to clip a lock of baby's hair to keep in a scrapbook. I see this site and all it stands for literally changing the way we celebrate our lives to the extent that our passing does not plunge our loved ones into darkness and despair -- because we will have left such a rich legacy and treasury on iLivediLoved that if family or friends feel pangs of missing us, they need merely take a healing dip into the pool of warmth and affection we have created for their ongoing enjoyment, in the form of images, videos, voice recording, memories, best intentions, well wishes, and love letters.... starting to get a little verklempt here...
P.O.Box 73766
Davis, CA 95617
Davis, CA 95617
(530) 794-8871
i lived i loved - the gift of goodbye - ilivediloved.com
