of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Commonweal. ISHI is a training institute for health professionals who wish to serve people with life threatening illness and take a more relationship-centered approach to the practice and teaching of medicine. The institute's approach is based upon experience with over 600 people with cancer who have participated in Commonweal's programs and on Dr. Remen's 20-year experience counselling people with cancer and those who love them. In addition to being a physician for 30 years, Dr Remen has been a patient of the medical system for 40 years. She has Crohn's disease and has had major surgery seven times. Thi... posted on Mar 23 2012 (50,972 reads)

with thoughtful lyrics struck a deep chord with audiences and their popularity caught and spread like wildfire.  Their hit single Blood Brothers would become a cult classic, particularly amongst the young South Asian diaspora.“I went from a nobody to lots of fortune and some fame; In my own eyes, I think I’m doing really well, Got lots of money so tell nobody to worry about my wealth; As for my health, well, it could be a little better; But take care of yourself, love your bro, I’ll storm through this weather.”     The song closes with the elder brother telling the younger one: “No, I would never let you go through what I&rs... posted on May 4 2012 (59,526 reads)

out on exciting things, and wanted so much to be out doing the fun things everyone else was doing. I was always changing the way I did things, because it seemed everyone else had a better system or tools. I strove to meet goals, because they would get me to a better life. And as I learned to be content, here was what changed: I learned to be happy with healthier food, with less food, and my health improved and waistline shrunk. I relied on a good book, spending time with people I loved, going for a nice run … and my debt began to be reduced as I learned I didn’t need to spend money to enjoy myself. I learned to be happier with who I was, and what I was doing, and ... posted on Sep 8 2012 (36,894 reads)

holds the possibility for expanding our capacity to love. There is only one reason to forgive. If we want to be free, if we want to live as the full and unlimited expression of ourselves, if we want our hearts to open, then we are being invited to put an end to all stories that keep us closed and contracted. Consider also these benefits of forgiveness: less stress, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, improved sleep, greater psychological well being. What exactly is forgiveness? When we are in the state of unforgiving, we are holding on to a grudge. A grudge is a story of hurt and resentment that we believe to be true and repeat over and over in our thoughts. I... posted on Jun 7 2021 (60,741 reads)

to me. I have respect for all paths that respect one another. I do not have respect for a lot of piety and righteousness or self absorbed, 'this is the best way' attitude. I don't really understand the fear that must be involved or the kind of protectionism or tribalism in Evangelical movements, whether it's Evangelical Islam or Evangelical Christianity. I don't really understand the need to be right to the exclusion of someone else being right. What if those of us who love poetry said poetry is more right than dance, for example, or poetry is more right than steel drum music. Or a sonnet is real and an open form poem is not real. Or haiku is right and villanelle is... posted on Jan 10 2013 (27,097 reads)

home a little black puppy from an animal shelter in South India. Mia had been brought in with her mother and three of her siblings, and was the only one of the pups to survive. The young couple who adopted her had no idea how deeply this bright-eyed newcomer would touch their hearts and transform their lives. In this short piece Snigdha opens a window onto their experience...which at its core is the experience of anyone who stumbles upon the gift of unconditional love. Mia will not always come if you call her. She may or may not sit: it depends on her mood. She definitely won’t lie down on command and I can’t think of anything mo... posted on Mar 31 2013 (14,913 reads)

and each of those components are constructive ways of being, like altruism or benevolence, compassion, inner peace, inner strength, inner freedom. [It is] the sense of freedom from being carried away by all sorts of wild chain reactions of thoughts due to craving, or hatred, or all that. It is the real freedom to maintain your inner peace. All of those together make a way of being that I think characterizes authentic happiness. It is a skill, because each of those factors, like altruistic love, can be cultivated, a greater inner strength can be cultivated. There are ways to cultivate the skills to be free from being overwhelmed by afflictive emotions. You could say that all of those co... posted on May 14 2013 (55,551 reads)

don’t mean love, when I say patriotism,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin in her classic 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. “I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.” In some corners, patriotism has a bad name. “Patriot” is mildly defined in my desktop dictionary as a “supporter of one’s own country”—and yet my thesaurus suggests the word “patriotism” can be synonymous with jingoism, chauvinism, nativism, and xenophobia. Particularly during times of war, patriotism does indeed seem to go hand-in-hand with dehumanization of outsid... posted on Jul 4 2013 (20,074 reads)

they become paralyzed with fear. And they never surf again. How often we are faced with just such a thing in our own lives – the waves beckon, but we stand frozen on the shore, wanting assurances of perfect safety before we dive back in. And because safety is never guaranteed, we often never get past dipping a toe in before we turn away, too afraid to try again. When our idea gets shot down at work, we decide it’s easier to just keep our thoughts to ourselves; if a movie we love gets put in turnaround once again, we become jaded and begin to cater to the lowest common denominator so we might not have to feel the sting of failure for something we care too much about; and ... posted on Jul 20 2013 (42,339 reads)

upon the page. I felt like I showed up to clean up the wreckage of Sandy with just a bucket and a mop. But more than her stories and her pains and her questions hitched to a prayer for answers, I felt my own emotions rushing back. I began nodding my head. I sucked back the tears. And I thought, “Goodness, I never had the courage to admit I felt this way. Ever.” Instead, when my own life carried the same echoes of her print on the page, I ushered myself into a life of writing love letters to others, and I covered my wounds with thin lined paper. I never faced the reality or taught myself this truth (this truth would have changed everything from the beginning): Lonelines... posted on Sep 15 2013 (30,292 reads)

there was so much to do. But instead I put on my running shoes and my favorite hat. With each step, I got closer to what mattered and farther from what didn’t. Letting go wasn’t my first response. But I did it. Today I lived. Today I stood in front of the mirror sizing myself up. It was apparent that stress and lack of sleep had left their mark. I wanted to dissect each wrinkle, pinch each layer of soft skin But instead I looked away and said, “Not today. Only love today.” Loving myself wasn’t my first response. But I did it. Today I lived. Today I threw together a simple dinner and scooped it onto the plate. It looked pathetic and unappea... posted on Nov 14 2013 (97,831 reads)

immigrant domestic worker in America?” Half-laughing, she pulled away to watch the audience react. Her words might suggest a disempowered victim, but her smile and laughter said something more profound. Despite many years of abuse and exploitation by multiple employers, Elizabeth has struggled, fought, and organized with other women to bring recognition and value to the “work that makes all other work possible,” and has done so from a place of enduring dignity and love. Flores, an El Salvadoran woman in her fifties, was speaking at a press conference organized by the “Alianza de Mujeres Activas y Solidarias” or ALMAS, a domestic worker organizing... posted on Jan 9 2014 (15,183 reads)

You’re free-falling. If you can free-fall long enough, you’ll go so fast your body starts to fly. Like when I jumped El Capitan—it’s a three thousand foot drop—the free-fall is for almost 14 seconds and you’re literally flying your body away from the wall. RW:  You just jump off. Bryant:  You just jump off. It’s incredible. I don’t do it anymore. It’s a selfish sport; a lot of people die. If you have family or a loved one, you shouldn’t be doing it. But it is incredible. You don’t feel any fear when you’re falling. You feel nothing but wonder, and time and seconds just stretch out forever. ... posted on Feb 16 2014 (22,000 reads)

Orunamamu The best teacher my children ever had growing up was in Kindergarten. Mary Beth Washington did almost everything contrary to the rules: she took the kids out walking in the rain; she slept with them during naptime; she came to school dressed like a circus performer. She was in love with birds, dancing, poetry and people. The School Board, more than once, voted to fire her, but the parents came to her defense again and again and won the day. She was about 30 years ahead of her time, a Flower Child before the era of flower children, with a genius for teaching kids. Once my own were in high school, the School Board finally had its way and kicked her out. I ran into her this ... posted on May 5 2014 (25,515 reads)

unnecessary procedures to extend their lives, 50 percent of all deaths occurs in facilities away from home. Of those, 40 percent occur in ICU’s, where physicians are charged with doing everything they can to keep a person alive, regardless of the outcome. Sometimes, the quest to avoid death can seem extreme, like in the much-publicized cases of Terry Shiavo and Marlise Munoz, where unnecessary life-extending procedures created exorbitant medical bills and emotionally burdened their loved ones. But, if Shiavo and Munoz are examples of a bad death, is there any better way? Is a “good death” just an oxymoron? Or can the experience of death be far more positive—... posted on Jun 24 2014 (84,564 reads)

horses but you gotta learn to ride.” Mom reminded us of that often. Many years later, Bret and I were living in New York City on 9/11. Afterward, our parents begged us to move to the suburbs, where they hoped we’d be out of danger. For Bret and me, leaving Manhattan was not an option; it was our home. Weeks of tense family discussions ensued. My parents lobbied for safety and against the new terrorist threat. Bret and I held firm in our refusal to be chased out of the city we loved. From 9/11 to Malaysia Airlines 370 to the Chilean earthquake and Washington mudslide to the Fort Hood murders (both times), the news of a community rocked by tragedy continually reminds us o... posted on Aug 9 2014 (15,341 reads)

I push my needle through the corner of one square, a thought occurs to me, something about how sadness is a sign of joy. I recall a stanza from Kahlil Gibran’s writings: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. If TJ’s life unfolds in the way I hope it will, he will be surrounded by love and connection. He will have secure bonds with his parents, with his grandparents, with his uncles and aunts. There will be people in his life he will think of as family, even if there is no biol... posted on Sep 7 2014 (17,736 reads)

end up fixing the refrigerator. We are woven so intricately into the fabric of all beings everywhere, so deeply involved in this enormous, common web of interconnected life, that only fear and resistance and the illusion of separateness allow us to imagine we ever do anything by ourselves. We completely depend on countless others every day for our food, our shelter, our electricity, water, clothing, transportation - for virtually every need we ever have, including care and affection, love, even life itself. While it is sometimes hard for us to feel that we belong anywhere, often the opposite is equally true: It requires an enormous amount of energy to remain separate from the rest... posted on Sep 4 2014 (19,606 reads)

brain and biology, and ready to be cultivated for the greater good. The biological basis of compassion First consider the recent study of the biological basis of compassion. If such a basis exists, we should be wired up, so to speak, to respond to others in need. Recent evidence supports this point convincingly. University of Wisconsin psychologist Jack Nitschke found in an experiment that when mothers looked at pictures of their babies, they not only reported feeling more compassionate love than when they saw other babies; they also demonstrated unique activity in a region of their brains associated with the positive emotions. Nitschke’s finding suggests that this region of th... posted on Nov 5 2014 (22,368 reads)

can be disarming. That’s what Carolyn North discovered. It started with an impulse to save the leftover Thanksgiving turkey her neighbor had discarded as trash. Thirty years later, she and a rotating team of friends-turned-volunteers have been quietly recovering surplus food and delivering it to free food shelters and pantries across the San Francisco Bay Area. At the surface, it’s a simple labor-of-love initiative called Daily Bread. Last year, its 90 local volunteers delivered 32 tons of food with little overhead and virtually no budget. For volunteers, it’s a straightforward weekly routine that takes less than an hour to complete. For food donors, it&... posted on Oct 30 2014 (16,289 reads)