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A Letter to a Young Friend whose Loved One is Dying
Dear young friend, I do not pretend to understand how you feel as you navigate the news of your grandmother’s cancer returning. Staring down the grim and unavoidable conclusion that the woman who...
View Article@Kady - Tories could soften party stance on assisted dying at upcoming...
Even as some Conservative MPs are calling on the government to tighten the parameters of its proposed new physician-assisted dying laws, party members are set to consider a proposal to soften their...
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God is Orange
I threw myself into alcohol oblivion while going to different bars hoping no one would recognize me from other bars in town. I was living with my best friend’s mom and she was nice enough to take me...
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'When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi
“Even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I’m still living.” Paul Kalanithi, like any medical student, spent countless hours in the hospital, working gruellingly long shifts as a neurosurgeon. So when...
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Journey of a Mystic - a spiritual awakening
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS Readers’ questions to a near-death experiencer at BeyondtheVeil.net Chapter Ten As a bonus, I’ve ended this ebook with two articles that were...
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Auntie E
I need to stop, breathe, think, and get these thoughts down. They are important. As simple as they may sound, to me they say it all and they are worth saying. My Auntie E is 96 years old and as I write...
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Here today....gone tomorrow
My latest commissioned painting happily unveiled. As its title suggests, a tale of the rhythm and movement, the transient impermanence of life…..Of having walked from far inside yourself out into the...
View ArticlePraeparatio Mortis
Parents teach you how to live. And Pragmatists teach you how to live in the world. Prudes teach you how to live in the world of the past. And Prophets teach you how to live in the world of the future....
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Alice & Oliver, by Charles Bock: Book Review
If you’re looking for a book that will make you incredibly mad at the healthcare system, this is the novel for you. If you’re already mad or have been burned by America’s healthcare system, there’s a...
View ArticleEditorial: Assisted dying bill in a chokehold
This mess was not entirely of the Liberal government’s making: The emotionally charged file on physician-assisted dying had already been mouldering under the last government, even though the Supreme...
View ArticleBlue Note Community
Steve posted this today on his CaringBridge page: Spent the last 4 days split between hospitals (prepped for chemo, but white blood cells too low, so sent home, echo-cardiogram test for heart...
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DRT, Pinterest & Neverland
I haven’t pinned since you have been gone. It will be a year next week. What I mean by pinned is I can’t log into Pinterest and start adding cool things to my Pinterest boards without thinking of you...
View ArticleFlourish
Reading through the WordPress daily prompts the other day, flourish caught my eye. I’ll admit, it was not the word for that day. But it did spark a thought. My partner and I sometimes co-write songs....
View ArticleEp. 39 Why It's Important to Think About Death with Karen Wyatt MD
https://lessonsfromdying.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/podcasteoluconversations.mp3 In this episode Dr. Wyatt shares her thoughts about why each of us should think and talk about death long before we are...
View ArticleVerse - Vanity, Cancer & Chemo
Well yes, I’ve lost weight in a flash, But I’ve spent all my cash–my skin has a rash, My Mother won’t feed me, My wife doesn’t need me, I’ve lost hair (pubic), beard, and mustache. Steve Shoemaker,...
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When Breath Becomes air
If you haven’t yet read When Breath Becomes air, Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s extraordinary book about his all-too-brief experience with non small cell lung cancer, you should. Once I picked it up I found it...
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Meridians
My mother was remarkably strong and stoic when faced with her final days. She was more concerned with those she was leaving behind than herself, a gift of the great faith which resided in the center...
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One Fish, Two Fish
The dead goldfish was a new parenting low for me, though it was not the first dead goldfish we’d encountered since Santa brought the fish tank two years prior. In fact, if we’re counting, it was maybe...
View ArticleFor My Memorial Service Bulletin
Steve is discussing with his family the following statement to be printed in his Memorial Service bulletin. He’s looking ahead. We hope far ahead, but he is accepting of death. “The last few months of...
View ArticleThe Gift of Being A ‘Replacement’ Child
I grew up believing that I was a replacement child, for I was given life after another child lost his: a brother my family loved and missed, and whose absence cast an obvious shadow over my grieving...
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