When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up having simply visited the world. That's the poet Mary Oliver, who died this month at the age of 83. No ... read more
We cook to keep them alive. Even when we can’t.
I'm a writer. It's how I think, how I process life and what I love to do. Back in 2010 I started this essay, We Cook. My girlfriend had been battling multiple myeloma for a long while and was in a rough patch, so I was making her the things she loved to eat. And while I cooked, I began this ... read more
Check out the best afterlife reading list
So this is what I consider the best afterlife reading list. People who know even a little about me know that I am a believer in the afterlife, but not in a traditional sense. We all want to know, right? But we don't want to die to find out. So we're not dying to know and we won't know for sure until ... read more
What you can do about lingering grief
She's been gone two and a half years (but who's counting?) and you'd think by now I'd have my grief more in hand. None of that lingering grief. Instead, what I had in hand was a tissue when I pulled the car over to cry. I miss the hell out of her. I miss her perspective. Her laughter. Her ... read more
How to instantly improve your hearing
Sometimes a thought can be so obvious, so logical, and yet so deep, that there's not much more we can add to it. In a world that's constantly spinning with information, conversation, noise, finding our calm center and being silent for a while can not only improve hearing but clarify a ... read more