Note:  I originally wrote this in May, 2010, and hadn't posted it on Copperstrings.  Since I wrote another post on a similar subject, I went back and decided to add this one to my Journals. Today I learned that Hollis Burns, a guy I knew in high school who was sixty-three years old died yesterday.  He had apparently played golf Sunday afternoon and gone home, and was found sitting in a chair holding a newspaper.  This guy looked healthy the last time I saw him.  He was only a year older than I.  It made me think about how little control we actually have over our lives.  We think we control things, we think we make things happen.  But do we really? How much of what we experience is beyond our influence?  Did Hollis have a fear of d...

I've been thinking about dying lately.  People in Japan are facing death as I write this.  One woman talked about her father being employed at a nuclear power plant, and he was staying to try to minimize the damage because he already knew he wasn't going to get out of there alive. Ten years ago, people in the towers in New York faced death with no recourse, and from all accounts, they bravely did everything they could. And I have clients come to me so depressed, so distraught with how things are going in their lives that they wish they could just die. I've felt that way myself.  A couple of years ago, facing my worst financial disaster, part of me just wanted to die so I wouldn't have to feel so much shame and pain. And we watch ...

This may sound like a strange question to ask since you are alive enough to read this but why did it capture your attention? Did you know that many people are more dead than alive in their daily existence? Having worked as a nurse for over 13 years, studying health and wellbeing for over 18 years and working with thousands of people who were ill, I realised two incredible facts. The first is that most people who end up in hospital, especially with progressive illness, have spent much of their life dying from within. They have low energy that has been blocked and/or drained for several years before ever ending up in hospital. What would you do if you had more energy? Certain things can happen as a result of having more energy. You...

When I first started writing this, it was about dealing with disappointment and moving through it. Today, I had to erase what I originally wrote because of a tragedy in the life of Karen, one of my dearest friends. This morning her five year old grandson, Matthew, died from complications of a bone marrow transplant. His little brother, Andrew, died from the same thing last August. Both children had a genetically transmitted blood disease, very rare--only a few children in the world (as far as I know under twenty) had manifested this particular strain. They were being treated by specialists in Cincinnati who did everything humanly possible to save their lives. Sadly, that didn't happen. I had the honor of getting to know Matthew ...

I re-discovered this today whilst wondering who it was that killed the Buddha on the road... Sheldon Kopp's Escatological Laundry List (learned on life's rocky road) 1. This is it! 2. There are no hidden meanings. 3. You can't get there from here, and besides there's no place else to go. 4. We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time. 5. Nothing lasts. 6. There is no way of getting all you want. 7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. 8. You only get to keep what you give away. 9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. 10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfort...

RE: 10 things I want my kids to know Could you do me a favour? As a parent, there are 10 things I'd like my kids to know. Thing is, if I tell them, they won't get it. That's the law: the last place you seek wisdom is from your mum and dad; just look at the mess they've made! My kids know me too well to think that anything as profound as this could come from my lips. Nonetheless here's my legacy. I sincerely hope it helps in a seemingly ever-more turbulent world. Any chance you could email it to them as one of those “The Dalai Lama said this and if you don't send it to 10 other kids, he's gonna tell Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie” e-chain letters, so they won't know it's me? Here it is; 1.Life is good. Remember this...