Writer, teacher, artist, filmmaker, and death doula Darnell Lamont Walker is all about the stories we live and share. What truly matters as we spend time and create stories with those we love? Darnell’s wide-ranging experience as a “rambling man” give him an original perspective on what matters as we live and as we die. This is one of those conversations that I’m having a hard time summarizing, but I think you’ll find that it moves something inside you.

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Transcript:

Diane Hullet: Hi, I’m Diane Hullet and welcome to the best life, best death podcast today. As always, I always end up saying this special guest and my guest today is Darnell Lamont Walker. Hi Darnell. Welcome. Thank you so 

Darnell Lamont Walker: much for 

Diane Hullet: having me. So I, I heard about Darnell before the Endwell conference, and I was intrigued because he brings a lot of different skills to his work as a death doula.

So I’m just going to list a few, you know, he’s a writer, he’s a healer. A teacher, an artist, a filmmaker, and then in addition to that, he adds, Oh yeah, and I’m also a death doula, right? I just love that because I feel like you bring this sort of big approach and then you happen to apply it sometimes to your work in the death field.

What else would you say to introduce yourself if someone’s never familiar with your work? Yeah, no, I 

Darnell Lamont Walker: think that hit it on the head. But I, you know, I, I’d say, you know, I, I’m just this wanderer, this this rant, I listened to a lot of country music. So I’d say I’m like this rambling man, you know, that just.

Travels and, and if it feels good, I do it. You know, it’s like, Hey, you know what? I want to, like, I’m learning how to knit right now. And I’m like, you know, I just want to learn how to knit. And so a friend got me a knitting kit and I’ve been knitting for the last couple of weeks. Like, yeah. And I think I’m getting pretty good at it.

Diane Hullet: I love it. Like you just, you just say yes. I just 

Darnell Lamont Walker: say yes to it, and if it’s, you know, it’s like, yeah, why not? Let’s, let’s go for it. That’s, and I, I’m one of those people. I like to dive head in, you know, and, and Hey, if it’s not great, I’ll get out. But most of the time it’s good. 

Diane Hullet: Yeah. Yeah. I, I, there was a great line that I was reading, you know, in some article about you that said, you know, he lives mostly in his cabin in the woods and then the rest of the world.

The rest of the world. Awesome. Awesome. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: It’s pulling around. And it’s fun. Like, I, I bought that place to just be, one, it was like, I always wanted a cabin. Two, I was living in New York and I didn’t want to pay 22. 50 a month anymore. And it was during COVID. And so nothing was happening in New York anyway.

And now I have it and it’s like the most peace and, you know, I get to bring friends there and they get to have the peace and they get to breathe and it’s just a place to breathe. But then when I leave there, I get to go into the rest of the world and, and experience even more peace and even more joy and happiness.

I love it. 

Diane Hullet: And bring your work out. I mean, it really sounds like workshops are a big piece of what you do. Oh, yeah. Tell us about that thread of being a writer. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: Yeah, I, you know, I’ve been writing since I was about seven years old. It was one of those. Things I saw, I saw it happening on TV and I thought, you know, I want to write something.

So I wrote this story and then that kind of took that took off in my seven year old world. You know, the teachers really got behind me and started saying, Hey, maybe you could read the story on the, on the announcement tomorrow. And, and, you know, I’m thankful for those people in my life who really got behind me, my parents.

And family and friends who, who just said, Oh, he, he’s actually a really good writer. And then I got into poetry and short stories. And then of course, moving to LA, I got into film and television and always, I knew I was going to write. I’ve always wanted, I started writing books when I was in high school.

Like I’d get the teachers to print papers off and then I stapled them together and I’d sell them for like three bucks. And so it was just this natural progression, but then, you know, now and as an adult, it was kind of, what do I do with this? Like I, I know the benefits of writing. I know how it makes me feel.

I know how it opens up my creativity and unlocks these things that are, you know, inside and holding me back. What if I could show others how to do this? And so. Started planning and, and just going around telling people like, this is what I do and let’s see if it works for you and then watching it work.

And so then it was, Oh, maybe I have something. And so thankfully, you know, there are places like Esalen Institute who brought me in as an artist the first time. And then, you know, I led a, a writing kind of prompt thing during a company meeting and they said, Hey, would you like to come back as a, as a teacher?

And And I thought, of course, any reason I have, I would ever have to come back to Esalen, I will take it. And I got back there and, and led a writing class for 30 days and then came back with a workshop with my partner, Kara, who does yoga and movement and mindfulness. And we really found this sweet spot where Those all those things together really work in favor of anybody who who’s using it, you know, it really unlocks the creativity.

It helps us tell our own story, which overall is one of the most important things to me, especially being a death do like I think telling our story is so important. It’s so it’s so big. And it’s what we have. It’s what we have to give when we’re no longer here. And so helping people do that is has been amazing for me.

It’s one of my favorite things. And I hope I get to continue doing that for a long time and I see that I see how it’s working for the people who’ve come and I see how it’s working for me. And yeah, it’s just great. It’s amazing. I love it. 

Diane Hullet: When you, when you talk about the end of life work with people, do you find, do you have people tell their story verbally?

Do you have them tell it in writing? Does it depend on the person? How do you draw that out? Because I think what you just said just was a huge mouthful, right? That at the end of our lives. All the stuff kind of drops away and what we have is our, our essence, our truth of who we are, which is in part our story.

And so how do people 

Darnell Lamont Walker: tell that? Yeah, it’s it’s all the ways. There are a lot of people who want to write it out because it really, and I, I, I, I’m a strong advocate for that. Like, I, I love helping people write it out. I think the written word is, is, is, is incredible. And, but there, there are some people who maybe don’t have the ability to write it out or just don’t want to do it.

 And so if it’s verbally, that’s great as well, it’s, it’s and sometimes it’s just you telling me your story at the bedside where maybe, unless I, you know, I have to tell it to other people, I have to tell it to the family or tell it to whoever wants to hear it but if it’s possible, I love having it written because then it feels like this piece of history that we get to keep, you know, In the way that you wanted it told.

So that’s, that’s important for me. Like I, you know, like even if it’s just the obituary, you know, it’s like, this is, this is if we can do it while the person is still alive, it’s like, this is the life that you want shared with other people and it’s a beautiful thing, but, you know, I, it, it happens in all, all ways.

I think we’re always telling pieces of our lives to, to people. We go to parties and. We go to the, you know, restaurants with friends or go out to, go out to dance. We’re always telling pieces of our lives verbally anyway. And I think once, I know once you get all those people in a room together at a funeral or at the repass or whatever it is, you know, all these people can put together the life of that person if they all start telling these stories.

And so it happens verbally naturally. I just love when it’s written as well. Yeah, 

Diane Hullet: I love it. I think sometimes what I see get in the way for people is it feels like such a big thing to bite off. And one of the things I’ve seen people kind of play with in a really beautiful way is, is almost telling it like vignettes, you know, or maybe they’re telling one important crucial moment from their childhood or one important thing they want their loved ones to know about what they learned about marriage or, you know, relationship or parenting or something kind of but, but, you know, sometimes just 10 vignettes or 10 shorter paragraphs or a bullet point list.

Sometimes it doesn’t have to be a, I was born in, you know, however many years, like how do you tell your story? Yeah, exactly. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: And I think it’s, you know, especially as someone who’s interested in the stories. And I think we all are in some, you know, we’re all curious To hear the stories of the people we loved, especially and I love stories of strangers.

I’m always reading memoirs and from people I’ve never heard of. And so I love that. But I think it’s all about the questions that we ask as well. It’s, you know, not asking, where were you born? It’s what did you, what was the craziest thing you and your best friend did when you were 10? Yeah. It’s like, how, how specific can we get with these questions?

And. Like, it’s all, it’s all about that. It’s like, what do I want to know? I, when friends call me, and not just friends, but even clients will call, and they have someone who is in their last few days, or last day, or however long they have left one of my, one of the things I ask is like, do you have all the answers to the questions you want to know?

And. When, when it comes to that time, when that time comes, we avoid those, you know, those simple questions. It’s like, I need to get to the meat of it. I need to get, you know, if there’s only five minutes left, I want to know, you know, this huge question that’s been on my mind. Why did, why did you really move to, you know, Colorado, you know, whatever it is, what’s the true story behind that.

And, you know, maybe you get that answer. So it’s, If we could just think in terms of these people could go at any minute, you know, which they could, you know, we all have someone die, like, randomly, it’s like, oh, you know, so and so just died. I just talked to them yesterday. How did they die today? You know, and if we could just think in terms of that, how can we get to those questions?

That we really want sooner and avoid the ones that, you know, they’re important, but they’re not as important. 

Diane Hullet: Yeah. Along with that. I mean, I would add ask those questions sooner rather than later, right? Because really a lot of times the last final. You know, even the last week, someone’s really gone to an internal place when they’re actively dying that final week or days or whatever it comes down to, they’re not available for questions, right?

So the kind of questions we’re talking about are really They’re upstream a little bit there. They’re at the point where the person’s wrestling with what’s inevitably coming and still able to have some nice conversational times in the course of the day where they might be sleeping a lot or they might be, you know, not so much getting out of bed.

So. Those are the times to really come forward and drop into that essence of the story, 

Darnell Lamont Walker: right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, I, I, I don’t even know if I had anything to add to that. I think that’s what, that’s like the, the, that sweet spot. It’s that key. It’s like, let’s drop in there and and just go from there.

And, and you, you find that it really creates, it also adds to that. To that bond, you know, as long as there’s breath, there’s still life, I say. And so when you’re getting that, even though this person may only have a few more minutes, it still helps with that bond that you have. And now you get more, you have even more when they go, it even helps the grief.

It helps lighten the grief that you might experience. In a lot of cases, you know, the grief is still there. But there’s still, there’s also joy and that closure. And, you know, I think a lot of times the grief comes from not having that. And so, you know, getting these stories and asking these questions really helped with that.

It’s like, 

Diane Hullet: it’s like connection, right? I, I was just saying to someone yesterday, it’s like, we have this idea that when someone dies, we lose the relationship, but the relationship is really, it’s building, it’s bonding, it’s connecting. Even as someone is dying, and maybe even after they’ve died, I don’t know, you know, and I’m not even saying we live on, I have no idea if we live on, but the relationship, those of us who are living, have a genuine relationship with those who’ve died.

And that, that is, can be built in part through this experience of someone dying, right? 

Darnell Lamont Walker: Absolutely. Like it’s, it’s exactly that. It’s always say, you know, the relationship only ends when, when you, you know, loved only with your eyes, you know, it’s this, that whole saying of if you, but if you were able to love with your heart and, you know, with your whole being, then that person goes on and then you have these stories and, and, and the story doesn’t stop when they die.

You know, there’s still things being answered. Like I said, you know, there are people who know different parts of that person. So you’re getting pieces of them. And you, and like, my, my granddad died. It was we’ve been, we’ve been close. Like he was a great person in my life as a kid. But the older I got, the more, you know profound and, and nuanced our conversations became.

And so I got to learn who he was as a person, not just my grandfather. And then, you know, and so I’m getting stories from him and talking to him and I recorded most of them. Even after he died. I’m talking to other people and getting other stories from these people and they’re telling me things and I’m like, wow, I didn’t know that about him, but I do that same thing or, you know, and, and so it’s, it’s still feels like this growing relationship with him and same with, with me.

You know, I have friends who died and you learn pieces of them and it’s like, I wish I would have known that then, but I know that now and wow, we had, we have so much in common, you know, and it’s, it’s still like this relationship is still growing. So as long as one of us is still here, it’s, that’s still very possible.

Yeah, 

Diane Hullet: there was you were interviewed by a wonderful new little magazine. Well, little was actually pretty thick. A wonderful magazine called Get Griefy. And there was a great quote in your interview in that magazine, which you said, I hope to get people from where they are. To where they want to be. And I love that quote because I think it really applies to all the different ways you’re working in the world as a writer, as a doula, as a teacher, as an artist, as a filmmaker.

You’re, you’re, you see yourself as someone who, you know, makes that kind of a bridge to move from point A to point B. Do you want to talk a little about 

Darnell Lamont Walker: that? Absolutely. Like I’ve, I’ve always I’ve always done the work. I think, and, and usually very unintentionally, like it was never my intention to be that person.

I didn’t set out and say, this is who I’m going to be. I think most of my life has happened by mistake, which has been fun. You know, it’s like you’re like, we got on today and just like, I didn’t send you any questions. It’s fine. We’re going to get there. Yeah. 

Diane Hullet: I said to Darnell, we are coming in cold.

Darnell Lamont Walker: Which I love it. Cause that’s just, that’s my approach to everything. You know, I just go in. And then one day I was in an interview and I’m talking about just everything that I’ve done, you know you know, everything you just mentioned. And the, the interviewer, he, he asked his name, Sam, he’s, he asked you know, what do these things have in common?

It just seems so all over the place. And I, and I, I never thought about it because why, and then I stopped and I’m like, huh, I don’t know. And then I think, oh. I think it’s all about helping people find happiness and joy and like everything that I’ve done, the art, the documentaries, the traveling, the writing for children, being a deaf doula, and I thought, but yeah, and he’s like, Oh, but are you, so then are you a shaman or are you this?

And are you this? I’m like, I don’t know. I, I guess I’m just the bridge. Like, if, if, if I’m helping you get from one place to the other, then I’m just the bridge, right? And I was like, oh, and it all just, it all just flowed out and I’m like, oh, this is a, this is a breakthrough moment for me. I was taking this interview, like, I could cry, but I’m going, let’s get through this.

And and it’s been beautiful. Like, I, I love, I love being that, you know, like I don’t have to define, I don’t have to go deeper than that, you know, and people, people get it. When you say, Oh, I’m a bridge. People know what a bridge is and like very literally. And so I’d never have to go deeper. They’re like, Oh, awesome.

And then we can go into other things. And it’s, it’s, it’s been amazing. It’s I love being able to see it. I love, you know, now intentionally making these documentaries and I get to see how people talk to the people who, who’ve had other bridges in their life, whatever those bridges were, and and also getting to be another one for them because I think we’re always, we’re, we are always transitioning.

We’re always Going from one place to the other, or we want to go from one place to the other. And so there are so many bridges in our lives and I’m just glad to be one of them. 

Diane Hullet: Oh, my head is just spinning with directions to go, right? So it’s like you found the through line through all the things that you do.

But I also want to circle back like what I love is that you talk about how what you’re doing is helping people find joy. And yet, like if you hear some of the topics of what your films are about, they don’t sound like they’re about joy. And yet I totally get how the expression of story Moves people closer to their joy, right?

Like, so for example, Darnell has made a film called Set Yourself on Fire, which is about the global rape epidemic, and it’s really powerful. I’ve not seen it, but I’ve seen, you know, bits of it. And, you know, clearly this is not a light, joyful topic. This is a profound, profound tragedy in our world and trauma that’s created.

And yet your hope as a filmmaker is to be a bridge for 

Darnell Lamont Walker: people. Absolutely. And, and, like, with that one, you know, it’s about being able to provide a safe space, but also build safe spaces, whether it’s a very, you know an actual space for people to come, or sometimes we find safe spaces in other people, and so it’s hoping to ha create I was hoping to create this film And show people, you know, one what’s happening in the world and the truth is about the world, but also show the, the very courageous and amazing people who shared their stories like this is how they got through it.

And this is what they did. And but then also for the viewers who watched it. Some were able to say, Oh my gosh, I’d never considered that when, if a friend ever came to me now, I know what to say. Because sometimes we, you know, we weren’t so safe of a space for some people who fell victim to sexual assault and rape anywhere in the world.

And it’s like, Oh, Well, now I can be now. I know how to be. And so, and maybe if I’m that safe space, that person can find their way to back to themselves back to hopefully I think everyone wants to everyone wants to experience joy and happiness and deserve to experience it. And sometimes it’s a long road.

But if I can make that easier than this is how we can do it. So yeah, yeah, talk 

Diane Hullet: a little, say a little about this, the film seeking asylum. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: Yeah. So seeking asylum, like I, you know, this goes back to my life happening on accident. I I was traveling to Europe anyway. I w I was on my way to Europe for a festival in Amsterdam and I planned on stopping in Norway, Paris, Amsterdam, and London.

And a week a couple of that a week before, but a couple of weeks before I left Freddie Gray was killed in Baltimore by the police. And it was, you know, a time when black men were being stopped by police and murdered. And then so a friend said, what are you going to Norway for? You leaving America to seek asylum?

And I thought, you know, that’s a really good idea. And and I was serious. I was like, I think I might. And I, so I had like this broken camera and a cell phone. And I was like, you know, I’m just going to go over there and, and just ask some people like, Hey, if I want to come to your country, would you accept me with open arms as an American who’s.

afraid for his life in the U. S. And they said, you know, and just collecting these answers, collecting all these answers, no idea what I do with it at all. And I got back and I just had hundreds of hours of footage. And, someone said, you should put this together and make a film. And I thought maybe, okay, I can do that.

 How do I edit this thing? And then a friend came in and showed me how to edit and then finished editing that. And then someone said, put it in a festival. I was like, Oh, Okay. And so I started submitting to festivals and got into some really big ones. And I thought, oh, people take this serious. And someone said, oh, you’re a documentary filmmaker.

And I thought, am I? Okay. And it became this, this thing, because it was really an honest look at me being afraid for my life. I have a son who at the time was only 11. And it was like, I, this is a world I have to live in. But what if, what if there were safer places in the world? You know danger is everywhere.

There, you know, the world is just a, sometimes I found so much beauty in the world and most of my experience in the world has been amazing, but there, there are Crazy things that happen in the world. So what if I just wanted peace and joy and happiness and didn’t have to fear, you know, being killed and where does that place exist?

And that’s what the film is, you know, trying to answer that question. Like, you know, is one of these countries here? One of the countries that I can move to, you know, between the four that I visited in that film. But it was crazy because each time I got to a different place, to a different country and city, it was something was happening there.

I got to Amsterdam and I’m thinking, this is, yeah, I love Amsterdam. I’d been before and I loved it. I was like, I could move here. And then a young black boy gets thrown out of McDonald’s and into the hands of the police for, you know, near, for no reason. And It’s like, Oh, well, maybe this isn’t the place and it happened as we’re filming it.

I’m like, Oh, maybe this isn’t the place. There was the protest happening in London when I got there for Freddie Gray. There was a protest in Norway. And so it was like, Is there a place where we could go? Yeah. And so it was a, it was a heavy one. And then after that, and then that, that film, that documentary had me thinking, cause what, one of the themes that kept coming up was, you know, well, how do you take care of yourself Darnell as this filmmaker now, or just this person living in the U S having to deal with this?

I know it weighs on your mental health. How do you deal with that? And I thought, Are we dealing with that and we’re not, no one I know is talking about it. And so I said, what if I make a film intentionally about mental health? And and so that led to the second film, which was outside the house where I explored like the mental health of like folks I knew here in the States and how we were dealing with it, you know, however we were dealing 

Diane Hullet: with it, whatever was coming up.

Wow. So, so accidental filmmaker and into these amazing realms of filmmaking. And then how did you accidentally come upon Death Duel of Work? Yeah, 

Darnell Lamont Walker: so Death Duel of Work, I, I, you know, looking back, it’s one of those things I look back on and Had been doing it, you know, like I, I, I said it and well, it was like, I’d been doing it since I was nine you know, informally, unintentionally, I came from a family of just caretakers, people who looked after one another, looked after their friends that we didn’t want people to ever be alone my grandmother, especially she was always at a friend’s hospital bed or, you know, At their home, bringing food, cooking for someone who, you know, just lost someone.

And so I watched that. And then I had an aunt, a great aunt, my grandmother’s sister died. And the family kind of just didn’t hold back from what was happening. And I remember at an early age, just understanding what it all meant. And so that helped them. Pull me more into the conversation. And then a couple of years pass and I go into like, I’m just looking for something to do after school.

And I become a a volunteer at a hospice and rehab center. And it was like, Oh, I’m just here. Cause I need something to do when I get out of school and my friends are working and I’m too young to work. And then you know, help take care of a cousin who died. And I’m just like, Just year after year with something and helping my grandmother prepare food for people and help her take care of people and it wasn’t until I was in my 30s actually that someone told me the name they were like, oh it sounds I’m telling them all these experiences and she says sounds like you’re a death doula and I had never heard it before and It was this moment of, oh yeah, and I look up, I look it up and I’m like, this is everything that I’ve been doing for the past, you know, 20 years and it was just this wow moment for me and Now I’m leaning into it.

It was like, okay, now that I know, you know, it’s like once you know, what do you do with it? Do you run from it? Or do you lean into it? So I leaned into it and there’s not much that is that’s changed from the work that I was doing. Before that, I it’s just more people, I guess the people now know, and so now people actually come to me instead of, you know, well, I guess they all always have, but now it’s, you know, really reaching out instead of just being family and friends, it’s sometimes strangers and emails and, and, and whatnot.

Diane Hullet: Right, right. And again, here’s the through line, right? Of your life. This through line is again, you’re a bridge because I do the work is so much about both about what we said earlier about helping someone get from point A to point B of sort of where they want to be in terms of coming to terms with immortality.

But also it has so much to do with being a bridge for the family and being a bridge for support and being a bridge. I don’t know. Bridge is a great metaphor for doula work, being a bridge of education, being all these roles that kind of come together that change a family’s experience of that. So difficult experience of dying.

Oh, absolutely. You know, there’s there’s sudden death and then there’s we know it’s coming right and and I think it’s fascinating that you know when we know it’s coming people handle that in really different ways and and I always think well if you know it’s coming if you’re willing to know it’s coming then doesn’t that change how you’re able to approach.

Everything about it, and it’s just fascinating that many people are, I think, so afraid of that and believe that it will bring more hardship instead of what you talk about, which is it can bring more joy. 

It 

Darnell Lamont Walker: can bring more joy and it can be a beautiful moment, you know, and it and I’ve seen it. I think most of us who’ve been in the death space have seen how beautiful those those moments can be when you know what’s coming.

You know, and we, we, because we spent so much time fearing death and not talking about death. Most of my friends, like I, I always ask the question and it’s so funny cause like I ask new people all the time, like, you know, how do you want to die? Do you want it to be sudden or do you want a death bid?

And everyone’s like, Oh no, I want sudden death. I don’t want to be, I’m like, no, I want to give, I need at least three days. Like I, you know, like I don’t want to, I don’t want it to be long, but I need at least three days to. Really just close out a lot of things and to, to give people the, the opportunity to just get what answers they want from me or whatever information, or maybe I can still be around to, or maybe there are things that I, that are locked back here that will open up and reveal themselves that I can share with people.

But it could be, it could be such a beautiful thing. It helps the families. It helps with like the grief that, that people experienced. It helps lighten that you know, getting that stuff out. And yeah, like I have a friend recently who lost her mom, but her mom was diagnosed, I believe in October and with with cancer.

And almost immediately she says, Well, no, I’m ready. And this is someone who was, I mean, extremely active, like, the day before was ready to take on life and had never considered this, but soon as she was diagnosed, she’s like, no, I’m, I’m just gonna go. And my friend who’s, you know, she calls me and she’s like, and I’ll ask her, I was like, how do you feel about it?

And she’s like, well, seeing how ready she is, it’s hard, but. I’m supporting it. And it’s like, yeah. And then they got to have this very beautiful couple of months together and she died New Year’s Eve. And up until that point, like it was too much, you know, and up until that point, it was just a beautiful time.

 And things were shared and, you know, and, and even the, the grandchildren were able to get that closure because we forget, we forget that there are other people. To, you know, and especially when they’re kids, it’s like, no, they, they deserve that as well. And so it, it’s a beautiful thing. 

Diane Hullet: I, I love that.

I think that’s actually a perfect place to pause Darnell and you’ve planted so many seeds for people to think about this piece about the kids need closure too, that there’s the possibility of this being a really, almost really a teaching moment. I think about. There’s a great Stephen Jenkinson quote where he says, dying can be the last great act of parenting or dying can be the last great act of a married life, right?

Because we can show people how to do this and how to do it. I don’t know, as best we can with as much courage and beauty and relationship as we know how to muster and, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna ish that, you know, it’s, it’s terribly hard. It’s terribly sad. That doesn’t go away, but those don’t have to be the only things.

So. You know, people like Darnell who are creating these bridges through all kinds of different work. I just think it’s so exciting that you haven’t limited yourself and said, Oh, I really need to focus on, you know, my artistic work or my writing work. You’re, you’re really all over the map. And I think that is so fabulous.

Maybe because I kind of like doing that as well. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: It’s so funny. Cause I, I grew up with the, you know, we all grow with the people who say, no, you need to focus on one thing. And I was like, do I? And Yeah. I think in my, you know, early to mid twenties, it got to the point where I was like, maybe I do. And then things started showing themselves where I was like, actually, you know what?

No, I’m going to do it all. And so now I get to be like the one person in a lot of my friend’s lives who say, do whatever you want to do, do everything. 

Diane Hullet: Right. Keep following, keep following your passion. Keep following your nose to, to what is leading you. Yeah, exactly. It’s I bet you have a book in you. Is there a book coming?

 Yes. 

Darnell Lamont Walker: Yes. I just recently, I don’t know. I don’t know how this whole thing works. I don’t know what I can share, but yes, a book is coming. Excellent. You’re the first to hear about it. I think it just came out came about just a couple of weeks ago and I’m really excited about that to see what happens and see where it goes, but it’s coming.

Diane Hullet: I think why not? You know, you’ve already, you’re already a writer. You’re already a doula. You’re already an artist and filmmaker. And I think there’s a, there’s a way to tell us your story that I think will be really wonderful. So, well, thank you so much Darnell for joining me on our I started to use the word whimsical.

I mean, this isn’t whimsical conversation, but it’s like, I don’t know, just a whimsical follow our nose through the conversation. And I have loved this. What a great, I’ve 

Darnell Lamont Walker: enjoyed it so much. Thank you so much for 

Diane Hullet: this. Thanks for listening. You can find out more about Darnell at 

Darnell Lamont Walker: Darnell Walker. com and I’m on, I’m everywhere.

 All the, all the social medias, hello, Darnell is me on Instagram and all that. And you could find me everywhere. 

Diane Hullet: Awesome. And as always, you can find out more about the work I do at best life, best death. com. Thanks so much for listening.