I was so excited about Housekeeping that I suggested, or rather insisted, my 11 year old read it. She read about four pages and said it was too confusing. I could not let it end there as I felt this was a book she would like. “Why is it too confusing?” I asked. She said […]
Category Archives: Wisdom
Where Poetry Ends and Prayer Begins, Christian Wiman’s _My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer_
In short, My Bright Abyss is structured loosely as short prose entries, which include Wiman’s poetry and the poetry of other poets, and his life experiences nested together as expressions of his thoughts on religion.
Being with Dying by Joan Halifax
Notice Joan Halifax does not say we need religion; rather she writes we need a “spiritual practice”. The emphasis is on practice; it must be practiced each day in order for it to work when we need it most.
What does it mean to live when we are aging or when we are dying?
As a pastoral care worker for my parish I visit parishioners who are in assisted living facilities, and nursing homes. What strikes me each time I go on a pastoral visit is not just the vast differences in living conditions at some of the institutional housing, but, and perhaps even more than the differences relating […]
Death and Dying in a Cure Culture
Mannix, Kathryn. With The End In Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom In An Age of Denial. Little, Brown and Company, New York. 2018 Kathryn Mannix writes with honesty and tenderness as she relates the stories of her career as a palliative care physician in the UK. Mostly, they are other people’s stories, but they are […]
