It’s been a tough couple of months in my house. My wife developed a sudden hearing loss, dizziness or vertigo, and a loud continual sound in her ear (tinnitus, a topic for another day). It’s been a challenge for her, and as her primary support person, for me too.
On a quiet Sunday morning, I was reflecting on my wife’s current struggles, and I happened on a book on the shelf that I hadn’t looked at for some years—“Strength in the Storm: Creating calm in difficult times” by Eknath... Read More
Several weeks ago, I was home recovering from a cold. Unable to do much, I found a manila envelope filled with letters I wrote to my mother when I was in my early 20’s. She kept these letters, and returned them to me when she was cleaning out a closet. They were typed on onionskin paper or handwritten. This is how we communicated in the 70’s. We called each other rarely—long distance calls were expensive. Some letters were from when I was college, but most of them were from my early years in graduate school in San Francisco.
When she sent me the letters in the mid 1990’s, she... Read More
Before a drunk driver killed my brother, I often felt like I lived within in a circle of protection. While I had challenges in my life, I hadn’t experienced unexpected death. Tragic events happened to others, in distant parts of the world, far away from my backyard. But when he died at 32 years of age, I realized that I was just as vulnerable as anyone else. At the time, it shook my world. But, years later, I realized that I was a member of a very large club. It helped me have more compassion for others.
It seems unfair to me that some people seem to have so much tragedy! Their... Read More
