The Spirit of Stuff
I have never been all that keen about material stuff. I love clear white walls, oriental rugs on wood floors and a few throw pillows. Space to quiet the mind or do a headstand. I dislike clothes shopping and go…
Michelle Peticolas
How’s your life?
Doing a life review is one of the items on the list of actions for dying well. It seems reasonable that you would want to take stock of things as the end nears. Create a personal “life report card.” How…
Shallow Thinking or Multidimensional?
About four years ago, I had the humbling experience of forgetting a dinner/concert engagement with a friend. I knew it was coming up, but for some reason thought it the following week. I had always been pretty good at remembering…
What Comes Next?
I can’t recall a time in my life when I did not believe in some kind of afterlife. Certainly my visualization of what that life after death might entail has changed over the years, but the certainty of my continuation…
Reality Shift
In her book, Worldshift Happens!, Carolyn North makes an argument for a shift in our dominant worldview from a predominantly objective, reductive, narrow-focused, scientific perspective to a broader, more inclusive, all parts are interrelated and holistic one. These two world…
Communications from the “Other Side”
The first time I heard about communications from the dead was shortly after my mother had died in 1998. I was very unsettled by her loss and talking to everyone about death. A friend of mine told me the story…
Conversations on Death and the End Game
Recently, my in-laws came to visit. Both parents are in their mid-eighties. My mother-in-law has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. It has been on my mind for a while now to get them to discuss their end-of-life plans. This…
Getting Back to Zero
Sometimes life can feel like such a challenge. Trying to make enough money in a high inflation/high unemployment economy, keeping up with all the things you have to get done, navigating partner issues, aging parents concerns, or being broadsided by…
A Waking Dream
Two weeks ago I had what can best be described as a waking dream. A nightmare actually. The sort of a dream where you are trying to get somewhere really quickly only instead you inch along in slow motion and…
Seeds of Change
Change is an inevitable part of living yet few of us are very comfortable with this. We often exert a great deal of mental and physical effort in maintaining the myth of non-change, such as dying our hair, getting a…
Transforming Grieving
Years ago, I wrote my Ph.D. thesis: “Reality Transformation in Gestalt Therapy Groups.” It is based on the theory of a socially constructed reality, i.e. through social interaction and words we continuously construct our world. Reality is, according to this…
Death As Snow
When I was growing up, a snow storm was a special treat. It blanketed the streets and houses in a coat of white — pure, quiet and full of promise. In the night, from my bedroom window, I would watch…