Memories are a Blessing and for Blessing

Joannie Rochette grieving after her Olympic performance in Vancouver.

It’s a Jewish tradition when someone dies to say, “May his or her memory be for blessing.” The actual honorific is “of blessed memory,” a translation of the Hebrew “zikhrono livrakha” (m.)  or “zikhronah livrakha” (f.). It’s an odd type of statement really. I tend to say, “May his or her memory be a blessing.” [...]

Reflections on Death, Dying, Afterlife, and Reincarnation

This past weekend I attended a memorial for a friend’s wife. I recently wrote about Tofah’s passing in another blog post. The memorial provided a truly beautiful testimonial to a life well lived, and I was struck not only by the good she had done in the world but by the lovely lessons she and [...]

What Do You Grieve?

Sometimes we grieve the death of someone who has passed on to the next world, and sometimes we grieve the loss of other things. What do you grieve? I grieve the loss of my lighthearted nature, my joy. I used to be a much happier person. I suspect that my joy began to dissipate when [...]

Losing So Many Wise Souls

It seems to me that this year quite a number of Wise Souls have left the earth plane. By this I mean that people I consider full of wisdom have died. Not only were they full of wisdom, however, they also were people very connected to Spirit, or God, very in tune with other people [...]

What Does Not Living Your Life Fully Cost You?

It’s been over a month since I last blogged. I should be flogged! But I won’t dwell on the negatives of why I haven’t blogged. Suffice it to say, I’ve been busy. Too busy to write. Too busy to bicycle. Too busy to read. Too busy to relax. Too busy to garden. Too busy to [...]

Signs of Life After Death and Passover Narrow Places

Okay, so Passover is over. I feel like I missed most of it…and while I’ve moved through a few narrow places and come out the other side of the parted waters, I’m still stuck in a few other tight spots. I missed a good bit of Passover this year, because my father-in-law passed away on [...]