Published Articles
2021 - August - Gazette - Courage
Courage
While driving through the western U.S. on a recent trip, I was struck by several acts of courage I saw during my travels. Park rangers at the Grand Canyon who walked out on the sheer ledge...
Thursday, August 26, 2021
2021 - August - CDT - Helping Hands
I’ll always remember where I was. Like many other Tuesday mornings, I was following along with my Rodney Yee morning yoga DVD while our infant son lay next to me. When I finished, the TV was on NBC...
Thursday, August 12, 2021
2021 - July - Gazette - Life with Tears & Laughter
Life with Tears & Laughter
When people from a Christian tradition provide me with the honor of officiating their loved one’s funeral services, a common scripture reading they request comes fro...
Thursday, July 22, 2021
2021 - June - Gazette - Intimacy with Disappearance
Intimacy with Disappearance
In his meditation on vulnerability, poet and author David Whyte wrote:
“…The only choice we have as we mature is how we inhabit our vulnerability, how we become larger...
Thursday, June 24, 2021
2021 - May - Gazette - Breathe in Moments
Breathe in Moments
One by one each of us entered the glass-enclosed circular chapel in the mountains of North Carolina. We removed our shoes and quietly sat down in a circle in the center of the r...
Thursday, May 20, 2021
2021 - April - Gazette - Tending Your Inner Garden
Tending Your Inner Garden
Wow, each spring I’m surprised. I forget how beautiful things are as nature comes back to life and I’m filled with wonder again and again. The vibrant colors of flowering...
Thursday, April 29, 2021
2021 - April - CDT - Helping Hands
After I officiated at a relative’s memorial service a few years ago, an out-of-town family member shared with me about his wishes concerning his own death. He said he wanted to be cremated without ...
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Previous Posts
2023 - November - Gazette - Dare! Silence
A lot goes on in the silence.” These are words I often share because silence is a big part of my work. For example, I ask for moments of silence when officiating at memorial and funeral services. D...
2023 - Nov - CDT - Helping Hands - Healing Through the Holidays
Healing through the Holidays
Author, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I witness this every day in my work ...
2023 - October - Gazette - Memories Become Treasures
Memories Become Treasures
I was visiting with my mom and dad a couple of weeks ago and we started talking about my dad’s parents, who I lovingly called Grandma and Grandad. My mom shared two memor...
2023 - September - Centered - Arriving Where I Started
I love the T.S. Eliot quote, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for t...
2023 - September - Gazette - Existing Elsewhere
A few years ago I sat with a handful of adults’s in a grief gathering and listened as one mother shared her story. She told us about the moments before and after her young child’s unexpected and su...
2023 - September - Town & Gown - End-of-Life Doulas, Graveside Journaling, and Sponsoring Memorials from Afar
We hope you read the September Town & Gown article by Holly Riddle featuring End-of-Life Doula Jackie Naginey Hook.
2023 - August - Gazette - Surrender Your Soul
Surrender Your Soul
A couple of weeks ago, I stepped onto the deck of our cabin at Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was early morning and the sun had just risen from behind...
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