Count Your Blessings

Scientific research indicates that gratitude has a lasting effect on your resilience to face new challenges. It also lowers blood pressure, boosts immune responses, and lessens anxiety and depression. A practice of gratitude promotes a feeling of well-being.

If you practice gratitude, you will experience more optimism, happiness and joy.

Practicing gratitude will change your life.

To develop a practice of gratitude you must first bring your attention to the blessings in your life. It helps to use a focusing technique such as mindfulness meditation...

“For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.."

~ Khalil Gibran 

Acceptance of our mortal condition is not easy. We live in a culture in which we think, we hope, we search for remedies and cures for all illnesses.

Our medical system is geared for analysis, diagnosis and solution. Medical practitioners work hard to find a way to avoid death. Too often death becomes a medical emergency, approached with urgency and chaos.

It takes courage to face death head on.

Death is a river we must all cross one day. Although we may circumnavigate it, avoiding...

Fire is a powerful transformer. It transmutes heavy energy into light. It delivers our prayers to the heavens and cleanses our hearts.

Fire ceremonies can be large community events or small, private rituals of renewal. Most often fire ceremonies are held on a full or new moon when the veils between the worlds are thin.

Celebrating the sun’s solstice or equinox with a transformative fire is also a powerful a way to release that which no longer serves our health and wellbeing.

• Gather Materials

Make a choice of the type of fire you wish to have - fire pit, metal...

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much."

~ Helen Keller

Building an end-of-life care community is a challenge for most of us.

Since my husband and I do not have children to lean on in times of difficulty, we have to expand our search for those who can help. We worried that by asking for help we could become a burden upon our younger friends.

To our surprise, all those we asked enthusiastically said yes.

Of course our requests necessitated lots of conversation about our values, life choices and wishes for care. We were required to speak up clearly be...

My favorite book this fall is Morning Altars by Day Schildkret, who introduces a ritual practice to nourish your spirit through the process of creating earth art.

His beautifully illustrated book displays many of earth altars he has created over the years. You will develop a richer relationship with the world around you once you witness his artistry and learn to celebrate the earth.This month we invite you to create an earth altar modeled on Morning Altars.

Learn more about Schildkret’s seven-step process of creating morning altars to celebrate the gifts of the earth...

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”


– Lao Tzu

Every year in early October I retreat from my normal activities for 3 days. I do this to honor my mother who was born on October 4 and died on October 6. During my retreat I disconnect from the outside world. I make curry pumpkin soup from scratch. Chopping, simmering, straining, tasting shapes the rhythm of my day. In the early years my retreat time was spent grieving.

Now, seventeen years later, I feel my mother’s love nurture me as I nurture myself.

In the...

An ancestor altar will change your life.

When you invite your ancestors to engage, you can source from their wisdom and experience. They will reveal themselves in your thoughts and dreams. The exchange becomes a 2-way relationship. You help them on their journey in the world beyond as they help you in this earthly world.

Many cultures throughout the world use ancestor altars for protection and inspiration. A most colorful example of the celebration of ancestors is the Mexican celebration of the Dia de los Muertas or Day of the Dead. On November 1 and 2, families bui...

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”


– George McDonald

On September 21, the fall equinox, I spent time in the company of friends in ceremony. Good friends and family are important in my life. We relish the time we get to spend together laughing, eating and telling stories.

These are the folks I rely on to help me when I am sick and care for me when I am dying. My husband and I do not have children to lean on in times of difficulty. We must plan, figure out who is best suited for the various jobs, and ask for help.

Preparing for death as a rite o...

“How did it get so late so soon?

It's night before it's afternoon.

December is here before it's June.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon??"  

~ Dr. Seuss 

I welcome the “dog days” of summer as Sirius shines brightly in the night sky. For me, this is a time of rest after a busy summer of teaching. The hot days encourage me to take it easy and reflect on where I have been and where I am going. I push the pause button on my life to take time for myself.

Time is such an interesting concept.

We humans depend on time to measure our lives, regul...

In every spiritual tradition there are prescribed periods of mourning the loss of a beloved. While the specific number of days, appropriate behavior and prescribed rituals vary from culture to culture, the message is the same: there is a time for mourning and there is a time to stop mourning.

We now recognize that grief does not have a specified time line. It comes; it goes and comes again.

In our workshop on Conscious Transitions: Living with Dying, we practice rituals for living, caregiving, grieving and dying. We know that rituals, when practiced consciously, bu...