My ex-husband, Tom and I are grieving today the impending death of the last of 3 amazing German Shepherds that we were graced to belong to during our life together.  I know that many of you who have experienced the death of a beloved pet will find your heart breaking about your own past or future losses. Love is like that--it sets up ...

Not that any of us thought he was wrong... I woke up this morning after a week of frustrating events, feeling like I was the main source of problems in my (read: 'the') world.  I felt like I'd alienated important relationships, had a disturbing set of dreams, failed at work, failed at parenthood, failed at being able to move steadily towards ...

If you don't know Eva Cassidy...here's one of her favorites.  I heard her voice on NPR about 15 years ago, not too long after she died, in her early 30's of ovarian cancer.  She sang her heart out up until the very end...and we can feel it in each of the too few recordings she left. I found this YouTube on Karen Crone's website 'my ...

Part 1: The call comes from 'Bougainvillea' (i.e. Katrina) asking me to come help her die. Katrina and I have been friends for over 20 years.  Note: In the late 1990's Katrina took on the nickname from a tropical plant I had carted to Colorado from Florida--a bougainvillea that I couldn't seem to kill--although I left it outside to freeze, ...

Solstice weekend now and forever will have a more personal meaning. This 2 part post is about my dear friend Katrina, who like the hurricane,was a force of nature. Katrina died of cancer at the age of 51 in 2003 on June 19th at 11:45pm, 15 minutes before the solstice.  The gifts she gave me in her courageous life and ...

  Ann Turner, blogger on the Virtual Tea House, has created another wonderful children's book, Sitting Bull Remembers, illustrated by Wendell Minor.  It takes the life of Sitting Bull from the end and works backwards, from his memories. ''In this dark room, in this place of fences, strange smells, and men with yellow eyes where ...

Several years ago, I attended a fire circle in western Colorado, where I then lived, on Grand Mesa outside of Grand Junction.  The fire was in conjunction with a plant spirit medicine class being taught by a shaman in the Huichol and Nahuatl traditions (central Mexico) named Eliot Cowan.  Eliot is Tsaurirrikame of the ...

Tim Black, father of two daughters, Courtney and Taylor, taught hundreds of high school students in Stuart, Florida for over 25 years.  He is now retired, writing stories and living his life simply.  Tim's daughter Taylor died in 2001 of a brain tumor at the age of 18. The work of this stage of his life is ...

Today is the 29th anniversary of my mother's death.  She died in 1978 at the age of 58 of ovarian cancer, before hospice care was readily available.  Her death was like her life: full of pain and grace.  Mom was sexually abused by her father for 7 years during her childhood.  Even though she did not fully heal from the ...