Tim Desmond writes about his wife's terminal illness, and his revelation about the way in which his deep love for his wife was manifesting as anxiety, and because of it he was missing their shared moments of beauty.
Tag: Death
Being With Dying – Kerry Egan
In her years working as a hospice chaplain, spiritual caregiver and author Kerry Egan has rarely found that dying patients want to discuss God or religion. Instead, chaplaincy work for her leans on the quality of the presence she can offer her patients and the compassion and empathy with which she can hold space for them and their stories.
Life and Death Do Not Exist
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
Edna St. Vincent Millay – “When You, That at This Moment Are to Me”
This sonnet by American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay is addressed to a lover and to the latent sense of impermanence and loss built in to all moments when one becomes conscious of great love or great happiness.
Osip Mandelstam – And I Was Alive
Osip Mandelstam spent many years of his life being persecuted for the views he held and the work he made. 'And I Was Once Alive' was one of the last poems he wrote before his death from heart failure in a transfer camp.
Kurt Cole Eidsvig – Seasonal
Kurt Cole Eidsvig's poem Seasonal is an ode to the goddess Persephone whose twin connections to both spring and death provide the framework for a personal connection to distance, love, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Judith Wright – The Lost Man
The Lost Man is Judith Wright's poem about the journey out of losing oneself, based on the true story of a plane crash survivor who was later lost over a waterfall in Australia.
Ram Dass on the Anxiety of Extinction
In 1961, Ram Dass famously collaborated with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, and Allen Ginsberg, to carry out pioneering research on research psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. This experience led Ram Dass, who was then an academic called Dr Richard Alpert, into a lifelong inquiry into the human condition and its mysterious psyche.… Continue reading Ram Dass on the Anxiety of Extinction
Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
The term between eternity and immortality - our lives - is the subject of Emily Dickinson's poem number 721. It's a gentle vision of life melting and disappearing into a drift and the being itself a 'miracle' as she refers to it in the last verse. She also uses the image of the moon reflected… Continue reading Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
On the Lip of Oblivion We Linger – Hafiz
Fourteenth century poet Hafiz is one of Persia's most celebrated poets. Not so much is known about him, and it's thought that only a small portion of his prodigious work survives. At first glance, many of Hafiz's poems read like heartbroken laments, penned at closing time after a rowdy night at the tavern. However, they… Continue reading On the Lip of Oblivion We Linger – Hafiz