Trail Guides
"The highest form of intelligence is to observe without evaluating." – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Tag Archives: death
Until We Can Deal With Death: We’ll never deal with COVID-19
I believe we will cope with pandemics and other threats if we focus on living and making life better for current and future generations and less on preventing death at all costs. Continue reading
Posted in healing, Reasons to Live, Uncategorized
Tagged aging, balance, Coronavirus, death, Health, lockdown
6 Comments
When Can We Stop
It shouldn’t be automatic that you’ll bear any burden and pay any price to extend life. Nobody lives forever. Continue reading
Five Times Denial is Good for You
If you deny a self-destructive habit, you could cause serious harm to yourself or others. Drunk driving would be a classic example. But in other situations, denial can be good for you. When is denial damaging, and when it it healthy? Continue reading
Posted in healing, Uncategorized
Tagged chronic illnss, climate change, death, denial, grief
2 Comments
Not Really Yours
Recognizing that we don’t own our feelings can be intensely liberating. Feelings come from somewhere. They are a reaction to something, but they are not our property. My usual reaction to the world’s problems is sadness or melancholy. The sadness is real, but it is not mine. Focusing on sadness is just a habit I’ve picked up. Nothing bad will happen to me or anyone else if I put it down for a while. Continue reading
Posted in healing, Reasons to Live, Self-Care Support
Tagged acceptance, death, Endowment effect, living fully, relationships, Sufism
6 Comments
Everyone on Earth
Three things you might not know about the people you share this world with: 1. Everyone on Earth is here to entertain you. Enjoy the show. 2. Everyone on Earth is here to teach you something. Pay attention. 3. Everyone … Continue reading
Posted in healing, Reasons to Live
Tagged connection, death, evolution, other people, plants
2 Comments
The Story of Your Life
Say you are a movie director shooting a film of your own life. How do you see the story unfolding? Is it a biopic, perhaps starting when your parents got together, and ending with a touching funeral? Do you star … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged biography, courage, creativity, death, eulogies, family, feminine mystique, flow, Hunger Games, immigration, letting go, life, living fully, Martin Luther King, memoir, not about you, path, patience, self-blame, Selma, story
8 Comments
Weekend in Nirvana
Why wait until you die to go to Heaven? It just might be all around you right now. Many people claim to have gone to places of wholeness, love, and safety, where there is no fear, no separation from the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged acceptance, Brahmananda, death, Eben Alexander, Eckhart Tolle, Heaven, Jill Taylor, Lao Tzu, meditation, Naomi Wolf, Nirvana, One Taste, orgasm, orgasmic meditation, peace, religion
11 Comments
Life and Death are Relative
As we do about once a year, Aisha and I were watching ducks in a small lake in Golden Gate Park, across the road from a stand of redwood trees. The mallards with their gorgeous green heads, the black and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Amy Tan, Bob Marley, Buddhism, Chuang-Tzu, Day of the Dead, death, ducks, Golden Gate Park, Heaven, Jill Taylor, Lao Tzu, peace, quantum mechanics, survival, Taoism, Zen
19 Comments
Not Fearing Death
When I worked at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, I had an 82 year old cardiac patient named Wilson. First name Mel, but he preferred just “Wilson.” He was one of those classic crotchety old guys, wrinkled, with a … Continue reading