writing : blog
“Nothing is worth more than this day.” –Goethe In 2008, I am going to be here now. When you unpeel it, 37days is all about now, but I find I don’t live in now very often. I live in then, or when, or one day. I want, instead, to live in Now. This moment. What does that look like? I…
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Dear Friends, Meta’s story touched many people. Her too-young death and the extraordinary leave-taking given to her by her family and friends brought lessons and insights to me, to many. On February 25th at 5pm EST, her family and friends will gather in the mountains to release a dove in memory of Meta and in celebration of her 21st birthday,…
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37 days goes by quickly. So does a life. After a young woman named Meta died this past fall, and in the slightly homebound recuperation following my fall in November, I created a 37days calendar for 2007 to raise money for a scholarship fund in Meta’s memory. The third and final printing of that calendar is now complete. If you’d…
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“Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.” –Pema Chodron, In the Gap Between Right and Wrong…
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“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” – Flora Edwards Do something. Extend yourself. This is no way to say goodbye to someone who has been your cornerstone, your love, your driving force, your partner, your rock. Xavier Bowie was 57 and had lung cancer. Finding…
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“Sheridan’s gifts as a teacher were as rare as the purity of his passion. Wherein did these gifts lie? In his brilliance? Yes. In his mastery of his subject? Of course. In his capacity for lucid, concrete, and vivid explanation? Again, yes. But there is another factor, one whose roots lie in magic or the supernatural. Sheridan had charm.” –Jonathan…
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"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?" – Stephen Levine A woman I used to work with in Washington, DC, died on January 12, 2005. I was shocked and angered on many levels: first, I was shocked…
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In October of 2003, my stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died 37 days later.
During that 37 days, I helped my mother care for him at home, since he wanted to die there. Never having been around someone dying before, I didn’t know what to do. When my father died, I was just 19 and sitting in the intensive care waiting room. No one asked if I wanted to be with him; they just asked if I wanted to see him dead after it was all over. It was the beginning of a long realization of how intensively we avoid death, at least in this culture.
Patti Digh is the author of six books, including bestsellers Life is a Verb and Creative is a Verb. She travels the world teaching others about mindfulness: to live fully, love well, let go deeply, and make a difference. Patti's comments have appeared on PBS and in The New York Times, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the London Financial Times, and many other international publications. She writes a thank you note every morning.
