I procured the Oreos for Passang and was rewarded with her bright smile. I cherished her smiles like precious jewels because they didn’t come that often and represented, to me, a resilient healing heart. The whole class liked Oreo cookies, but Passang, my one nine […]
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Class Party
The dour teacher smiled, which was my personal reward. The children were excited for our class party. I had been able to procure guava juice and Oreo cookies at the Kumar Store in Dehradun. It was a favorite shopping place for me because they carried […]
Understanding What Is Not Possible
Andy was asked to design and build a 120 foot long suspension bridge, with a team of men who worked at the orphanage. Jackson Browne sings in Fountain of Sorrow, “And while the future’s there for anyone to change, still you know it seems, it […]
Party Like A Monkey
“I feel grumpy.” I had said that morning when it was my turn, and a lot of the kids had followed my lead. In the midst of our grumpy group, I thought about the monkeys who had passed by me earlier and I announced, “We […]
Stories Of Being Saved
I was told I would be teaching a class of twelve newcomers, who spoke no English. Alana would not arrive for a couple weeks because she was finishing her second year of college, so I was on my own to start. It was 2008, the […]
Using What You Do Have
I also remember one day after Nana’s explanation of who I was, Baba lifted his hand up and gently cupped my cheek with his dry scratchy hand, and appeared to recognize me. There is never a more important time to count one’s blessings than after […]
Losing Identity After Diagnosis
For me, I had been partners with Andy for thirty years when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. I was forty seven years old and extrinsically characterized as nice, unconventional, optimistic, spontaneous, and a little spaced out. Most of this was true. Any diagnosis of […]
Who Cares About A Sick Person?
I believe that most people DO care about sick people but DO NOT have the ability and cultural support to put that care into practice. It sometimes felt like the rats were jumping off the sinking ship of Andy’s illness. It felt like a reality […]
How Do You Define Yourself?
One’s essential nature is what we are born with and then conditions happen and in absorbing them we make meaning out of them. The meaning we make begins to define us. It is easier to see when a small child becomes sick. In defining ourselves […]
Giving And Receiving
When Andy’s and my business of making and selling welded bronze jewelry took off, we wanted to share our good fortune and had read about the concept of tithing. We discovered that receiving was a way to be generous. When Andy’s and my business of […]