The Accompaniment Series
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This page will give you a feel for the heart of the series before guiding you to your advance copy of Lions at Dawn. If you’re part of the ARC group, we’d be grateful for your honest impressions — I will send you reminders to fill out a feedback form.
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Thank you for walking this path with me.
Links to Lions at Dawn below...
The Accompaniment Series documents seven years of walking alongside Betty through dementia and cancer—not as a story of loss, but as discovery and healing. These three books work as bridges to reveal how beauty becomes medicine, how identity persists through cognitive change, and how love creates pathways where conventional approaches find limitation.
Through real-time audio recordings and innovative narrative structure, witness accompaniment as it unfolds: complete with challenge, wonder, strategic protection, and unexpected revelation. This isn't theory—it's lived experience offering hope and practical wisdom for millions of families navigating cognitive change without adequate guidance.
LIONS AT DAWN
The Foundations of Accompaniment
What if caring for someone with dementia could become a journey of discovery rather than loss?
The first book in the Accompaniment Series reveals unexpected gateways to connection that remain open when memory begins to fade.
Through midnight firefly fields and dawn bird choruses, discover how beauty itself becomes medicine for the besieged spirit.
BOOKS THAT OPEN NEW PATHWAYS
From Crisis to Accompaniment
When Betty began showing signs of dementia, conventional cognitive care approaches proved inadequate. The Accompaniment Series emerges from seven years of discovering what actually worked versus what we thought should work—not another management system, but "Accompaniment": the relational dimension that preserves personhood when memory falters.
These books translate intimate caregiving breakthroughs into frameworks that honor both the person experiencing cognitive changes and their companions. Each volume stands alone while contributing to a complete map through territory that families worldwide navigate mostly without guidance.
Lions at Dawn establishes foundational principles, revealing how environmental settings and aesthetic experience create pathways for continued connection and growth. The Sword & The Blessing navigates the challenging terrain of family dynamics and institutional resistance, showing how protection and blessing work together as strategic art. Beyond Time's Shores illuminates how identity persists through different channels when memory changes, guiding companions through sacred transitions with wisdom and grace.
Following the Accompaniment trilogy, we offer Ray's Adventures—initiatory stories that prepare hearts and minds for approaching cognitive care with curiosity rather than fear, creativity rather than resignation. Together, these books create new pathways through one of our most pressing cultural challenges, reshaping how we understand aging, memory, and the essential human connections that endure through all transitions.
What Makes These Books Different
Across continents, a revolutionary understanding is taking root: environment shapes cognitive experience more profoundly than disease progression. From agricultural programs in the Netherlands to neighborhood homes in Japan, from forest initiatives in Norway to small-scale communities across the United States, identical diagnoses produce dramatically different outcomes based solely on where and how people live. Medical professionals visiting these programs often deny residents have "real" dementia—because the behaviors we expect simply don't manifest when environments honor personhood rather than manage symptoms.
The Accompaniment Series emerged from this same discovery through seven years of documented experimentation with what actually worked versus what we thought should work. Unlike theoretical works on dementia, these books are driven by real-time dialogue and vivid scenes from our journey—each conversation with Betty transcribed from audio recordings and preserved in her authentic voice. You don't just learn about alternative approaches; you witness transformation as it unfolds, complete with moments of challenge, humor, wonder, and unexpected revelation.
What makes this work unprecedented is the convergence of three knowledge systems: Betty's lived experience validated ancient wisdom about consciousness and spatial memory while aligning with cutting-edge neuroscience research on cognitive resilience. This triple validation creates an unshakeable foundation for understanding cognitive changes as transitions between ways of knowing rather than simple loss.
Currently Available: Lions at Dawn is ready now, with The Sword & The Blessing (Summer 2025) and Beyond Time's Shores (Fall 2025) in final editing stages. Each book offers a complete journey on its own while contributing to the full transformation arc—allowing you to begin wherever speaks to your current situation or experience the complete evolution from foundation to sacred transition.
This isn't just another approach to dementia care—it's documented proof that the future of cognitive support is already happening internationally, and these books provide the cultural bridge needed to bring these life-giving approaches to families who desperately need them.
Join the ARC Reader Community
Building the movement to improve cognitive care
These books are being prepared for traditional publication to reach so many families who desperately need these approaches. While we work toward bringing The Accompaniment Series to the world through established publishing channels, we believe this knowledge can't wait.
Right now, you can become part of the founding ARC reader community with immediate free access to Lions at Dawn and priority access to The Sword & The Blessing and Beyond Time's Shores as they complete the editorial process. This isn't about book sales—it's about ensuring no family walks through cognitive change without hope and practical guidance.
Your engagement as an early reader helps us refine these works while building the community that will carry this revolution forward. Whether you're facing these challenges now, preparing for future needs, or simply believe in the power of accompaniment to transform our approach to aging, your participation matters.
All books are available at no charge to ARC readers. If our mission resonates with you and you'd like to support the platform development that makes this work possible, you can contribute here.
Mission supporters who contribute $500+ will receive print editions of Lions at Dawn and Shambhala and the Caregiving Heart of the World as our thank you for helping make this work possible.
Ready to join the community that's changing how we understand cognitive care?
Fundamentals of Accompaniment
Book 1: LIONS AT DAWN
"Wake up dearest Mumsy," I whispered in the darkened bedroom. "What time is it?" Betty asked, her voice still heavy with sleep. "It's 1 AM." "Is it time for a pad change?" "Yes, but after that I have something very special to show you." "Oooohhhh. That sounds wonderful."
Minutes later, we sat together in an abandoned field witnessing tens of thousands of fireflies—breaking every conventional rule of dementia care and discovering something remarkable in the process.
Lions at Dawn introduces the essential elements of accompaniment through Betty and Mark's early journey together. Through experiences like midnight firefly fields, dawn bird choruses, and Rouge River outings, you'll discover how beauty creates pathways to connection that remain accessible through cognitive change, the hidden layers of relationship that operate beneath visible tasks of care, and how integrating head and heart enables love to find its own logic.
This foundational volume establishes ways of recognizing and protecting what matters most when memory begins to change. Rather than focusing on management or loss, it reveals how both companion and accompanied can continue growing through this challenging passage when surrounded by wonder, nature, and unconditional presence.
Available Now - Free ARC Access
Begin your Accompaniment journey with the foundational book in digital formats for all devices.
*Note: The access link takes you through a brief checkout process, but the book is set to $0 with no costs or transaction fees.*
Book 2: THE SWORD & THE BLESSING
the Art of Accompaniment
As cognitive changes intensify and challenges multiply, The Sword & The Blessing navigates the middle passage of accompaniment. Building on the foundations established in Lions at Dawn, this book shows how protection evolves from instinct to strategy to art as companions learn to read patterns both visible and hidden.
Through Betty and Mark's continuing journey, you'll discover the evolution from soldier's duty to warrior's strategy to knight's integration, how to navigate family dynamics that create powerful currents around cognitive care, and ways to build networks of distributed support connected like pearls on a strand. The book reveals how to find unexpected blessings within apparent limitations while maintaining the strategic protection that love requires.
The Sword & The Blessing demonstrates how companions learn to wield both fierce advocacy and tender presence simultaneously. This isn't just better caregiving—it's the complete art of accompaniment that reshapes both the accompanied and the companion through their shared journey into mutual becoming.
"My job was not to be a soldier carrying out orders, but a Knight offering both protection and blessing. This wasn't just metaphor but practical necessity—the sword alone creates only safety without connection, the blessing alone leaves vulnerability unaddressed. Together, they formed the complete art of accompaniment."
Available Summer 2025 - ARC Reader Priority Access
ARC readers will receive priority access to this volume as it completes the editorial process. Start your journey with Lions at Dawn today and automatically receive access to the complete series.
Book 3: BEYOND TIME'S SHORES
A Guide to Sacred Transitions
"If you do not hurry, you will not be late."
—Ancient ferryman's teaching
Beyond Time's Shores explores territories rarely addressed in conventional approaches to dementia care—the sacred dimensions of cognitive decline, the thresholds between different ways of knowing, and ultimately the passage beyond time itself.
Building on the foundations and strategies established in previous volumes, this final book illuminates the completion of accompaniment's arc. Through Betty and Mark's final chapter together, you'll discover the art of navigating between worlds with increasing fluidity, how memory operates not as a single structure but as a complete system with multiple preservation channels, and the emergence of Second Sight and different kinds of perception that become accessible when conventional abilities change.
Beyond Time's Shores completes the accompaniment journey by showing how companions navigate final thresholds with wisdom and presence. Rather than focusing on endings, it reveals how what appears as limitation might become an unexpected doorway to deeper understanding—how identity persists through different channels and how love continues beyond apparent boundaries.
Available Fall 2025 - ARC Reader Priority Access
ARC readers will receive priority access to this final volume as it completes the editorial process. Start your journey with Lions at Dawn today and automatically receive access to the complete series.
RAY ADVENTURE SERIES & ACCOMPANIMENT
Preparing Hearts and Minds for Caregiving & Accompaniment
Only recently did the connection become clear: Ray's quest to help her beloved "Grandsy" navigate Alzheimer's in Shambhala and the Caregiving Heart of the World serves as powerful preparation for anyone facing cognitive care challenges. When Ray discovers that the mythical Elixir of Immortality might actually be found in the caregiving heart itself, she's learning the same essential truth that underlies all accompaniment—that relationship and presence matter more than cure, management or heroic measures.
Ray's journey through the hidden realms of Shambhala, her encounters with Bon-Po shamans and traditional wisdom keepers, and her ultimate realization about where healing truly resides, all prepare readers to approach cognitive changes with curiosity rather than fear, adventure rather than resignation.
This isn't theoretical preparation—it's emotional and spiritual readiness for the kind of creative, loving response that makes accompaniment possible. Ray shows us that caregiving requires the same courage, resourcefulness, and open heart needed for any meaningful quest.
While Shambhala focuses specifically on cognitive care, Ray's complete adventure series represents a broader preparatory journey into place-based accompaniment and all that entails—authentic engagement with traditional wisdom, scientific wonder, environmental awareness, and the awe that comes from recognizing our deep interconnection with the natural world.
SHAMBHALA AND THE CAREGIVING HEART OF THE WORLD
Ray's Quest for the Ultimate Medicine
When Ray's beloved "Grandsy" is diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia, Ray refuses to accept that the sparkle in her grandmother's eyes must fade away. Drawing on everything she's learned about the power of sacred quests, Ray embarks on her most challenging adventure yet—seeking the mythical Elixir of Immortality hidden in the legendary kingdom of Shambhala.
Using clues left by her missing father "Fa," Ray leads her mother on a deceptive journey to Nepal, arriving during the most turbulent moment in the country's political history. When her mother is taken hostage during the royal family massacre, Ray must rescue her with the help of Devi, a trained protector of Shambhala, and a Gurkha pilot with a convenient tendency to black out when facing direct orders.
Ray's quest takes her through Bon-Po ceremonies with wrathful deities, tum-mo competitions that teach her to melt ice with body heat alone, and finally into a false Shambhala that traps visitors with hallucinogenic honey. But her greatest discovery comes when she realizes that the Elixir of Immortality she sought for Grandsy might have been within her caregiving heart all along.
Perfect preparation for anyone facing cognitive care challenges, this adventure demonstrates how love, creativity, and traditional wisdom can transform our approach to dementia from fear-based management to relationship-centered accompaniment.
Available Now - Free ARC Access Available as individual book or as part of the Ray Omnibus Edition for mission supporters.
*Note: The access link takes you through a brief checkout process, but the book is set to $0 with no costs or transaction fees.*
Carrying forward Betty's legacy of love and accompaniment
Betty's question—"What can we do?"—has been answered through seven years of discovery, international validation, and the growing number of families choosing connection over management, beauty over decline, hope over resignation. Now we're asking the same question: What can we do together?
Your journey begins with a single step:
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Start with Lions at Dawn and discover the foundations that change everything
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Join the ARC community helping refine these approaches for families worldwide
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Support the mission that ensures no one walks through cognitive change alone
Whether you're facing these challenges now, preparing for the future, or simply believe in the power of love to transcend limitation, your participation moves this work forward. The songlines are singing, the pathways are open, and the revolution begins with each person who chooses accompaniment over isolation.
