“We’ll sit here in the afternoon sun when we’re old and too tired to walk,” Vic said when we designed a deck with a two-person bench shielded from the wind. “We’ll watch sunsets here.” He dubbed it the “Old People’s Corner.” We’d always wanted a deck on the sunny southwest side of our home, but […]

I sit at one end of a pale turquoise couch in my brother’s living room. At the other end of the sofa, my frail brother sits and dozes in his baggy gray sweats. His pale head nods forward. His chest rises and falls with gentle snores. My dog Willow sleeps on his feet. Jim is […]

Ancient mythology has much to teach us about grief and mortality. In this post, I take you an adventurous journey into a 5000-year-old story from Mesopotamia. This myth begins with listening.  “From the Great Above she opened her ear to the Great Below.”[i] The one opening her ears is Inanna, the Great Goddess of Heaven and […]

Vic and I waited in a quiet room in our friend Steve’s house while the sound engineer set up his recording equipment. Vic wore thick layers of bulky clothing over his cancer swollen body. Four months before, after a severe drug reaction, he’d survived a dozen cardiac arrests. He had been on life support for thirty-six hours with repeated bolts of electricity to his […]

Jean Raffa and I spent two days brainstorming and writing a workshop proposal. The night after I left Jeanie’s home, I had this dream: I look down into the streambed on my land.  My small stream is a wide deep river surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. Huge elephants splash in the water. Elephants here? On my […]

The flower-decorated cake says Happy 100th Birthday. We hand out forks and napkins. Around fifty elders, over 90% women, murmur at the tables, their eyes filled with chocolate anticipation. Unlike many of us who always run late, people show up early at a senior residence. The party is scheduled for 2:00. At 2:10, the birthday girl […]