Meditation/mindfulness

Your last spoon, ever.

I'm going to write an essay on my Mom Spoon. The cheapest spoon I own is also the most valuable one. This week, 3 years ago, my mom's 84th birthday, and also her last birthday, I was struggling to feed her while she was in hospice at her nursing home. I accidentally took, in the chaos of that week, her spoon home with me in my luggage--I camped out in her room all that week. It is a cheap, thin metal spoon obviously intended for an institution. On the back, it is stamped DIRECT SUPPLY. Every time I find it in my drawer and use it, I think, this is the last spoon my mom ever used in her life, to eat! We all have a Last Spoon. Think about that. Read more →

November 11, according to my mom, was "gateway day".

Which is ironic, given that it certainly became that, for her. Just discovered this photo of my mom. I recognize here her classic, joyful-crazy-mystic gleam in her eye, a look which persisted to her last week of life turning 84 on November 15 three years ago, dying in hospice. But... Read more →