"What stupid, completely inconsequential corner of the universe are you taking far too seriously right now such that your deathbed self is burning a hole in you with its gaze across space & time?"
– Shozan Jack Haubner
Photo credit: "Gazing," Tricia Hall, 2010.
“It is best as one grows older to strip oneself of possessions, to shed oneself downward like a tree, to be almost wholly earth before one dies.” Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes or the Loving Huntsman [recommended]
On May 28, 2014 our Group for people with life-threatening illnesses celebrated the lives of those who have already passed on. I was unable to attend the memorial service due to bronchitis, but I celebrated all those people and two of my family with the poem I share below.
Our Group is comprised of people from several different religious traditions and is hosted by our local Insight Meditation Center. The group was founded and is run by a Buddhist chaplain who has been very kind and is a stalwart friend to each of us.
Though I continue to follow the progress o
IMAGE CREDIT: Brian K
Hello my dear precious friends! I am so sorry for there being no blog last Friday, technical difficulties prevented me from writing. I’m sitting here from the comfort of my room writing this. I want to share with you why I am grateful for grief this week.
On July 5th, I lost my friend Demetre Josebeck to an overdose. Only 3 days later, on July 8th, I lost my friend Lauren Graff to the disease of addiction as well. Talk about being slammed all at once & death smacking you in the face, I was broken and still am. I am in the thick of grief & it’s not pretty at all. In fact, it is messy and all over the place.
But I am grateful for grief. Why? Because in active addiction, I would numb my feelings before. Now I can feel these wave of emotions and proce
