In this New Year’s Day conversation with coach, attorney, and end-of-life doula Susan Koenig, she talks about what she has learned from a life as one of eight children raised on the edges of poverty, experiencing the deaths of several people close to her, and the joy that can be found by being attentive to life. Koenig also shares how we might frame our aspirations for the year ahead in this season of reflection and resolutions.

The fifth of eight children and raised a Catholic, Susan Koenig grew up in Little Italy in Omaha. She is an executive coach, attorney, author, and certified end-of-life doula. As an attorney, Koenig is the founder of the divorce law firm, Koenig|Dunne. Her book, Divorce in Nebraska, has been replicated in over 30 states. Koenig’s brother Tim died of AIDS in 1994. Her late husband, John, received a cancer diagnosis with a prognosis of death in two and a half years. With no options for surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, they embarked on a holistic healing journey of over a decade. Koenig shared her reflections in her TEDx Omaha talk, The Energy of Eulogy. Koenig has three grown children and makes her home in Little Bohemia with her partner, Kevin, and their two cats. Her word of the year for 2023: TRUE