I REMEMBER The Woman Remembers I remember, as a child, longing for summer and sunshine during the coldest months of the year. I sometimes doubted that winter would ever end. I remember the heat of the sun. My skin blistered. I remember kissing Don in the back seat, and our guilty touches. I remember the…
“Humor is peace in the true sense of the word,” says Ernest Dempsey in Part II of our Riehlife conversation as our thoughts roam over such topics as the important influence of his brother and how Pakistani culture views writing/writers.–JGR JGR: I know you’ve been working on your first book, “The Biting Age” for five…
“Essentially, I am living in Pakistan only physically.” This is one of the interesting revelations from the conversation Ernest Dempsey (Karim Khan of Pakistan, author of the new collection of satirical stories, “The Biting Age”) and I share today and tomorrow on Riehlife. Part I takes in the territory of humor in the family and…
THE GREAT AMERICAN BUM SONG Come all you jolly jokers, and listen while I hum, The story I’ll relate to you of the Great American Bum. From the East to West, From North to South, Like a swarm of bees they come They sleep in the dirt, and wear a shirt That’s dirty and full…
My father wrote me that recently one of his friends had educated him on the difference between bums and tramps. These were terms in use during the Great Depression…before Street People and Homeless. Listen and learn.–JGR I had always thought that the words “bum” and “tramp” were interchangeable. Not so. A tramp is a person…
My morning breakout session has a long title: “Accessing Transpersonal Dimensions of Healing Through Writing and Poetry.” Whew! I’m out of breath just saying it. It’s short and sweet, only an hour and 15 minutes including questions. What are the doors that poetry can open at the end of life? –dying hospice patients can write…
I’m here in Boulder, Colorado for three days (May 18-20) to present a workshop at the 5th Annual Integrating Spirit & Caregiving Conference with an emphasis on Integral and Transpersonal Approaches to End of Life and Elder Care. The conference is presented by Naropa University Extended Studies and the Center for Contemplative End of Life…
Rigpa is my Buddhist group, headed by my teacher Sogyal Rinpoche. One of Rigpa’s programs is the Spiritual Care Program. The Rigpa U.S. Spiritual Care is run by the rather marvelous Darci Meyers. For five years, the Spiritual Care Program has offered Contemplative End of Life Care: A Certificate Program for Health Care Professionals through…
An old friend of mine, Suzanne Maxwell, is working on the Building a Culture of Peace Conference this week in Santa Fe, New Mexico (www.santafescribe.typepad.com/world_peace_conference_sa). Louise Diamond shares these thoughts on the peace community with us from her Peace Report Issue #6. –JGR _____________________________ Who or what exactly is ‘the peace community,’ or for that…
Participants at the “Building a Culture of Peace” conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico May 16-17, 2007, will listen to speakers: Arun Gandhi Nobel Peace Laureates Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Jody Williams (and, by Video) His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Five Peace Councils include: Demilitarization and Peace Economy Our Youth, Our Promise Knowing the…