Yet we can attend to such wounds. We can learn to hold space for the presence of shadow and sorrow. Learning how to live with the pain of my mother’s illness and her subsequent absence has informed my life’s work with both the living and the dying. If I am wise and capable enough to skillfully integrate the painful emotions stirred by her loss, I

Our children need to know how to trust their intuition and befriend their own dark corners, too.

Holding space is the wise and appropriate response to such hauntings. And to hold space well requires a willingness to accept and integrate our own anger, regret, and sorrow. It obliges us to honestly apologize when our actions cause harm, and to fearlessly own the darkest corners of our life’s stories. In doing so, we gain the capacity to be

On the one hand, the threshold point that constitutes our entrance into this world and the threshold point that constitutes our exit out of this world are axis mundis. They begin and end each heart’s journey through time. Sacred sites, both human-made and those found in nature, also can be regarded as axis mundis. However, mystics of all faiths

That is what matters.

“You know, insanity runs in my family,” I tell him, quoting from one of my favorite films, the classic Arsenic and Old Lace.

When have you felt most alive? Most awake? Most connected? When have you felt most at one with a greater sense of meaning, purpose, or power? Most likely, such moments occurred while loving deeply, feeling deeply, and seeing deeply. Facing loss can inspire such moments. When we pristinely acknowledge the impermanent nature of this world, we can be

Both love and death are powerful and while we may want to embrace one and eschew the other, they are paired.

Yet, pre–Civil War, most Americans died, experienced family-centered postmortem care, and were buried at home.