death

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Embering

What to do with this grief over what happened to you? I don’t know, so I’m making a ritual. 

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All in the Interfaith Family

Susan Katz Miller talks about “how to be the most joyful and creative and successful interfaith family you can be, whatever that looks like.”

Mary Oliver and her dog, Perry. Photograph by Rachel Brown.

Joy Before Death: Following the Path of Mary Oliver

From Buddhism to science to the end of life.

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The Trouble with (Holy) Saturday

What is Holy Week for an Unholy Family?

Killing the Buddha

The First Long, Dark Night After The Earthquake

A dry hot month to beat the records was passing its torch to the newspapers when the earthquake struck early Wednesday, causing untold damage and ceaseless unhappiness as the tremors…

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Goodbye, Tim LaHaye

When I first encountered Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind (1995), I was sitting on the a sage-colored corduroy coach at my mom’s house. Left Behind rested on a…

windyroad[Editor's note: you can read about Ashley's experience with biking as a "survivor" in the 2014 Closer to Free ride here. She has written more about cancer and her work with refugees here and in her KtB e-book <em>You Were Strangers: Dispatches From Exile</em>.]

Easter, A Bright Sadness

Death is a kind of light.

windyroad[Editor's note: you can read about Ashley's experience with biking as a "survivor" in the 2014 Closer to Free ride here. She has written more about cancer and her work with refugees here and in her KtB e-book <em>You Were Strangers: Dispatches From Exile</em>.]

A Beautiful Belief

A change of heart on the subject of bodily resurrection.

"<a href="testng">Oh God</a> Oh God Oh God"

Evidence of Your Journey

From our new e-book,Oh God Oh God Oh God: Essays on Sex and Religion, available now!

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Still Slowing Down for Poetry: For Mark Strand, 1934-2014

As I crawled my way out of college, and started stretching toward graduate studies, I stumbled on an essay in the New York Times Book Review. I’d never heard of…

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Halloween: Your Questions, Answered

Halloween’s origins lie in the Celtic mists of carved turnips, bonfires and celebrations of life and death. It’s always been a fun/spooky time of year since, of course, the flipside…

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Am I a Survivor?

I was ambivalent about wearing the word survivor on my sleeve, until I put on my biking jersey for Smilow Cancer Hospital’s “Closer to Free” ride. I’m a stage-IV cancer…

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Leaves of Ash

You forget and then remember: you’re dying.

Killing the Buddha

Quotes from the Accident, or God is Good

It was right out of a movie  I heard a screeching Some were dozing  There was absolutely nothing suspicious happening   You had to hold the chair so you didn’t…

Halloween

BOOOOO!

You may remember the fateful day, 5 years ago, when Mrs. Hannah Hubbard tried to rise from her grave where she lay buried since 1747, in Concord, Massachusetts. Very spoooooky.…

by muffinbasket, via Flickr

Acts of Faith

I’d think to myself, this time I’ll thank her for taking the leap of faith that led to my birth. But always within a minute of our meeting, she’d say my boots were clunky and I had a bad haircut.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan surveys damage to City Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Oakland, Calif., following an Occupy Oakland protest Saturday. After a confrontation with police, demonstrators gained entrance to City Hall where they burned an American flag, overturned a vending machine, broke glass and toppled a model of City Hall. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) An image of Lenin was added by the blog San Francisco Citizen.

Occupy, from the Grave

A few weeks ago, Atchu was announced dead. disturbing to even mention someone’s passing, so afraid we are of the Reaper. like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obama or any other who has…

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Warhol’s Grave Sight

“I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment” —Andy Warhol To pay homage to…