Monthly Archives: May 2019
(Follow-up to last week’s post) During a conversation one evening, Stu (my partner and spiritual mentor) addressed my favorite topic–being present: “The Now rips away secrets. Unless we are present for the twists and turns of each moment, we are not authentic. The Now demands we be there for it. What matters is what we are feeling, experiencing in each moment. Am I the Now or the story I tell myself about the Now? Each moment demands a unique set…..
I come from a family of reserved people. “Don’t make waves, don’t cause any conflict, stay in the background”—these were the messages I internalized growing up. On top of that, our family genetics probably reinforced this way of being. When I was in first grade, the teacher chose me to be the Christmas Angel in the school Christmas play. I was shocked to be chosen. I was certain Mrs. Anderson would pick Anne Webster for the part. Anne sat behind…..
In my book, Simply Sacred, I wrote about a client I called John, a man in his thirties who came to see me at hospice when his wife was dying of a brain tumor. They had tried every treatment to no avail, and she was at the end of her young life. During our first session, he told me he was at peace with the situation. Of course, he was devastated for himself and for his wife, but he had…..
Once, while working at Hospice, I was assigned a client (I’ll call her Judy) who had been in the hospital for several days, having outlived the doctors’ expectations that she would die within a day or two. They were considering sending her to a long-term facility. Each day, after seeing my other hospice clients at my office, I would head over to the hospital to sit with Judy. She could barely speak at this point so we usually just sat…..
