There is a great session right now with Annie Lebovitz ,her photos and end of life experiences. Beautiful.

This afternoon a session with Shriver,Edwards and St. James,who have all suffered loss, have a session called Grief,Healing and Resilience.

Live stream here

 I caught wind of this film about 7 months ago and apart for those poor goats( no real goats were harmed in the making of the film) this looks like a good time. We all need a good laugh now and again.

This is a link to Huffington Post video that shows the real men behind the story.

Opens November 6th.

If it were winter, those deep dark frigid days could let me pretend
That this cold around my heart was a natural thing
I tell myself, the shattered pieces of what I used to be clutched tight
That it is getting easier
That your memory is fading
That this pain is less
That I am strong
That I can bear never caressing the nape of your neck
 (Because you are too old to hug, so you claim)
As we sit and talk about your day
I tell myself these lies and others
But again this morning
The shattered nerve memory, the voice over the phone line
All come back just like that night
It is nightmare time again

All my theories, all the things I use to endure this
Lay shattered at my feet  ready to be reassembled
The ultimate horror~ and the grace ~ is that I do survive
The unseasonable temperature, way to warm
Allows no pretense this is anything but what it is
I will never see you
Hold you, hear you, touch you
Again

Time does not heal all things
But that is as it should be
A life is worth remembering, worth crying over
Worth laughing over~ there will be time for that latter
Today you took your first breath
Changing me for ever and for good
I hold you to me until my last breath






 

Imagine that scene in the movies: You have had your last meal; you are walking down that long corridor with a holy man intoning prayers. They place you in the chair, wet the cloth, lay it upon your head, attach the wires and the warden says the last words you will ever hear. Electricity surges through you until you are dead. Now imagine you are completely innocent.

From such a bleak start, it may be hard to believe, but this is a story of hope, redemption, and healing for both a family and a nation.

Tom Joyner sat down with Professor Louis Gates as a participant in the PBS documentary African American Lives 2 last year. Mr. Joyner, a radio talk show host knew little about his family. He was about to find out why his mother moved away from their home in South Carolina and never spoke of her brothers.  They had been wrongly convicted of a murder~ astonishingly for the time 150 white residents had asked the Governor for a commuted sentence, but it was denied. Last Wednesday, October 14, 2009 they received a full pardon. Justice was finally served after 100 years.

Read all the details of this touching story here.

larger view

Christopher ~ Oct. 19, 1970 ~ April 13, 2004...till soon son.

  I am always reflective this time of year, recalling both of my boys days and the love we share.
The truth of these words: “No one gets what they deserve~ we get what we get” has come home to me yet again. The sad news of a friend facing the chaos of this life reached me and illuminates the truth of those words.

She has lived a good life, never smoked, drank, ate well. She did all the things that make a life healthy and well lived. One of the fresh faced girls with clear eyes and a ready smile, she might have served you ice cream at Dewars, until the road led her to Alaska. There she gave birth to a girl who now attends collage in New Zealand. Bright child with a brighter future, both of these women have wide vision and the courage it takes to act on that vision. Our world has been the better for them. There is more about this woman to say~ but I want to hold that close to me now ,kept secret in my soul , as I send her courage and blessings out loud.

As with each one of us, the news of death is a harsh reality. The finality of it all is the one truth we cannot escape. The hope is that the treatment will buy her one year…the dream is five years.  She wants to see her child again and I know that feeling all to well.

No one gets what they deserve; they get what they get…
Just this once I hope she gets what she deserves.