It can be challenging to respond to others with love when their behavior pulls us out of a state of emotional equilibrium. At these times, it can be easy to focus on others’ shortcomings…

As I was sitting in my home office, looking out the glass-framed window, a large egret swooped by, headed towards the nearby lake. My heart skipped a beat as I marveled at the sight of this bird…

“To be awake is to be alive.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden

As I write this blog post, I’ve spent a year living in a strict isolation setting in my home with my family. I’ve not gone out in public…

I get into bed after pushing my dog Gigi over a little so there is room for me to lay my head on my pillow, and pull the covers over my body. My husband is fast asleep and I look over our king-size bed to see Bella, our other furry friend, smashed up against him…

It was Friday afternoon, and my pager went off. My hospice team nurse was notifying me of a new admit, Jean, who was actively dying and whose family was requesting a visit. I turned my car around to head to a nursing home in Edina. 

My cell phone rang, and it was Scott. “My dad is septic,” he said. “The doctors are saying that he is probably not going to make it. If you want to see my dad, you need to catch a flight now.”

I hung up the phone and told my 20-year-old son, Owen, the news.

I jumped into my dad’s car, and we headed to school.

I was 11 years old and in the sixth grade. I had lost all my hair in the latest round of chemotherapy and decided it was time to wear a wig. I’d covered the shoulder-length wig with a blue bandana, and I thought no one would notice.

Driving up to the airport, I see my friend Laurie waving at me with a big smile at the end of the platform. I pull up, and she jumps in my car and gives me a hug.

“Hello, my dear,” she says. Her warmth and big energy fill my entire car.

A small, elderly woman was sitting on the couch as I walked in the front door of her home. She had a prayer shawl covering her frail shoulders and thin arms, and she gave me a big, warm smile. She had an uncanny glow about her, I noticed, as I sat down in the chair next to her.