There are more books written about the life and teachings of St. Francis than of any human, second only to the man known as Jesus.  Far more than the garden ornament he has been cast as, Francis stands as symbol of humility, transformation and grace.  Father Richard Rohr is one of the sanest voices in Catholicism, and ...

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, ...

So on a post last week, ''The Dog's in Heaven and the Cat's in Jail'' in a follow up comment, I came to Geronimo's (aka Damn Dog's) defense.  I wrote about 4 things that he has been teaching us about living and loving.  Here's one I forgot, and since it's an important one, thought I'd write a whole post about it. Lesson ...

I had an odd moment yesterday.  I work at a child abuse intervention and advocacy center.  We serve the community primarily by providing comprehensive medical evaluations for children who are suspected of having been abused; therapy for abused or neglected children without private insurance and prevention and education programs ...

  A new member of our community, Roxanne, has just posted a story of grave hope and redemption. Thoughts on Acceptance and Change.  It's a hard one to read...but Roxanne is amazing in her lack of self-pity or recrimination. What may be even more powerful is her understanding of what forgiveness means--it's not a simple ...

Today (December 4th) would have been my older brother Jay's 44th birthday. He has been gone almost 32 years now. On January 19th, 1975, my mother, in all of her rage and pain and grief, beat him to death. I think the saddest loss for me over the years is that I never really got to know him very well. I spent ten years with him in an environment ...

As we made homemade grapefruit/ginger/mint sorbet last night, ate it out of the Donvier, and re-watched Forrest Gump with our brother Mike's family last night, I was struck with a deep longing to be Forrest...Forrest Gump.  (This is a live link to a photo gallery on the IMDB website with pictures from the movie). I want to be that simple, ...

The following is a written version of a presentation I gave during a women's spiritual retreat weekend. This is the story of how I am using art therapy to heal my troubled heart and move forward so that I can eventually create art to heal the spiritual and psychic wounds of others. -- Peg Gerrity Part 1: Childhood AbuseGrowing up in a family ...