The Courage to Be Mortal
Five years ago today, my friend Laurie Foley died. For the last five months of her life, we talked to each other a lot. I wasn’t feeling well myself and mostly tried to sleep on a couch in my office so I wouldn’t disturb John, and she was in the …
Know the point of your life
“Sheridan’s gifts as a teacher were as rare as the purity of his passion. Wherein did these gifts lie? In his brilliance? Yes. In his mastery of his subject? Of course. In his capacity for lucid, concrete, and vivid explanation? Again, yes. But there is another factor, one whose roots …
N is for now
“Nothing is worth more than this day.” –Goethe In 2008, I am going to be here now. When you unpeel it, 37days is all about now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one day. I want, instead, to live …
Release a dove for Meta
Dear Friends, Meta’s story touched many people. Her too-young death and the extraordinary leave-taking given to her by her family and friends brought lessons and insights to me, to many. On February 25th at 5pm EST, her family and friends will gather in the mountains to release a dove in …
Where every day is Now
37 days goes by quickly. So does a life. After a young woman named Meta died this past fall, and in the slightly homebound recuperation following my fall in November, I created a 37days calendar for 2007 to raise money for a scholarship fund in Meta’s memory. The third and …
Mind the gap
“Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could …
Consider yourself part of the solution
“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” – Flora Edwards Do something. Extend yourself. This is no way to say goodbye to someone who has been your cornerstone, your love, your driving force, your partner, your …
Reconnect, now.
"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?" – Stephen Levine A woman I used to work with in Washington, DC, died on January 12, 2005. I was …
Why 37 days?
In October of 2003, my stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died 37 days later.
During that 37 days, I helped my mother care for him at home, since he wanted to die there. Never having been around someone dying before, I didn’t know what to do. When my father died, I was just 19 and sitting in the intensive care waiting room. No one asked if I wanted to be with him; they just asked if I wanted to see him dead after it was all over. It was the beginning of a long realization of how intensively we avoid death, at least in this culture.
