creative engagement
New possibilities…
It’s all about identifying the possibilities inherent in holding both what is actually happening for you moment-to-moment alongside the very real desire to survive it for as long as possible. We can do this together.
Read MoreIn Search of Equilibrium
What happens to our relationship with normal when we search for equilibrium instead?
Read MoreThe Gift of Gratitude
“Wonderful work, dear lady!” the email from a past client’s family read. “Words cannot describe how grateful we are for the support you have given our family. Never doubt the importance of what you do. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” ***** In my files at home, I keep a folder called “READ THIS”, that I fill…
Read MoreA Deathbed Playlist
The other day, I was driving to a friend’s house when a song I have long loved came on the radio, She Used to Be Mine, by Sara Bareilles. There are days when the song moves me to tears on its own, but as I drove, my friend Laura, who died on New Year’s Day, came…
Read MoreThe Death You Want
“Have you given any thought to how you want your end of life to go?” I gently asked my nearly-94-year-old grandma that question one afternoon as we talked about her younger brother who had died two years earlier. “I don’t want a stranger to find me.” “OK,” I said, wondering the odds of this since she lived…
Read MoreDancing with Death
She questioned the prevailing cancer story and wondered how she could write her own story with cancer from a place of curiosity, kindness, and compassion instead.
Read MoreGrief and Gratitude
In this time of Thanksgiving, I’m attempting to answer the question, “Can I be grateful for my grief?” in the wake of my beloved grandma’s recent death. She was more of a mother to me than a grandmother. She was nearly ninety-four and had lived what everyone calls “a good long life”. Yes, that’s true.…
Read MoreReminders of Impermanence
“I’m in an ambulance on my way to the hospital,” my husband told me as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Wait. You’re what?” was all I could think of to say. It was almost 2:00am as I lay in a single bed in the guest room at my dad’s house in Florida,…
Read MoreMessage Received
As originally published for The Convenings on 8/17/18 “I heard my mother talking to me yesterday,” a client recently told me. “I was half asleep and I had just been talking about her, so it was probably nothing. I’m sure it was just a dream,” her tone quieted in the telling and her brow…
Read MoreThe Playfulness of the Unknown
As originally published for The Convenings on 7/23/18 The other night, while enjoying dinner with my dad and bonus mom on the deck sweetly nestled in the treetops of the woods behind our house, we chatted about our dogs and the grief of outliving them when our love together runs so deep. As the stories…
Read MoreA Space for Grace to Enter
As originally published for The Convenings on 6/16/18 The stillness of a recent early summer morning found me in the garden. As I tended and planted and otherwise lost myself in creation, I heard rustling behind me and turned to find my dog Ritter belly up, rolling around in my iris garden. “No!” I…
Read MorePracticing for Death
It’s been 10 days since I arrived in Germany to companion my friend as she receives treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Originally, we were to fly her home to Florida this Sunday — three days from now. As it is, the doctor requested that she stay for another round of hyperthermia and chemo before she…
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