Book Recommendations
Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death, by Joan Halifax:
Everything I can think to say about this book sounds trite: "Do you know someone who's dying? Are you alive? Are you uncomfortable about dying? Does the thought of death make you anxious? Then this book is for you!" just doesn't do justice to how thoughtful and gentle this book can be. All I can say is that this book helped me be with Jellybean as she was dying, really be with her as she needed me to be. Those two wonderful moments I had with her last week had the opportunity to occur partially because of what I had learned from reading this book. And what I learned from reading this book allowed me to grieve when I needed to (which ironically seemed to be mostly while she was still alive). Most of all, this book taught me how to be with myself through Jellybean's death: how to just be with my emotions-the anger, the sadness, the despair, the pain. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson:
Wow, I read this book not knowing it was a novel... Anyways, this was written in the early 1900s about a biracial man (his mother is black, his father is white) who makes the choice halfway through his life that he wants to live the rest of it as a white man. It's a really interesting read, though I did have to remind myself at times that this was written in the early 1900s... Anyways, his observations on racism in the US at that time are sharp and pointed... and it saddened me how many of those observations could have been made today.
Everything I can think to say about this book sounds trite: "Do you know someone who's dying? Are you alive? Are you uncomfortable about dying? Does the thought of death make you anxious? Then this book is for you!" just doesn't do justice to how thoughtful and gentle this book can be. All I can say is that this book helped me be with Jellybean as she was dying, really be with her as she needed me to be. Those two wonderful moments I had with her last week had the opportunity to occur partially because of what I had learned from reading this book. And what I learned from reading this book allowed me to grieve when I needed to (which ironically seemed to be mostly while she was still alive). Most of all, this book taught me how to be with myself through Jellybean's death: how to just be with my emotions-the anger, the sadness, the despair, the pain. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson:
Wow, I read this book not knowing it was a novel... Anyways, this was written in the early 1900s about a biracial man (his mother is black, his father is white) who makes the choice halfway through his life that he wants to live the rest of it as a white man. It's a really interesting read, though I did have to remind myself at times that this was written in the early 1900s... Anyways, his observations on racism in the US at that time are sharp and pointed... and it saddened me how many of those observations could have been made today.