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Pagan

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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March 2026

March 11, 2026

Miracles Are Only Temporary

Even miracles, it turns out, are only temporary. It's tempting to get angry about that,...

February 2026

February 04, 2026

Thank You, Ms. G.

She's not the first regular patient of mine there to pass on, but she was...

December 2025

December 21, 2025

Holiday Lights, Solstice Fires, and Jizo’s Jewel

Tonight, I turned on the holiday lights and set up my little Winter Solstice ritual...

March 2025

March 13, 2025

Comfort The Dying; We’re All Dying

It's a simple syllogism: Comfort the dying. Everyone is dying. Therefore, comfort everyone. In this...

February 2024

February 03, 2024

some things you just can’t fix

We talked around it not about it the elephant in the room: the corpse in...

December 2023

December 20, 2023

Symbolic Magic And The Dead In Arlington

We are in the realm of symbolic magic dealing with the dead, and should tread...

September 2023

September 18, 2023

Grieving The Summer

Autumn is the season of metal, associated with grieving and letting go. It is also...

August 2023

August 02, 2023

Speaking to the Dead on the Wind Phone

So when I saw that someone had set up a "wind phone" at the Starwood...

March 2023

March 30, 2023

Death, Dogs, and Cherry Blossoms

As if to fit that mood, there was trash dumped in my old playground, and...

February 2023

February 10, 2023

Eulogy For A Difficult Brother

How do we eulogize people who were difficult to others and to themselves? And how...

February 04, 2023

My Brother Died Today

But right now I'm tempted to consider whether putting unglamorous photos of dead alcoholics up...

September 2022

September 15, 2022

Parental Death, Ancestor Work, And The Search For Love

My father is five years dead, and his death was a great blow. But I...

October 2019

October 30, 2019

Working with Jizo Bodhisattva at Samhain

Death is the great mystery, the undiscovered country, the unavoidable confrontation with the boundaries of...

September 2019

September 18, 2019

The Aftershocks of Grieving

I share this so that you may know it, if when next you grieve (for...

October 2018

October 29, 2018

The Veil And The Void

What if we thought of the veil between the worlds not as a separation between...

September 2018

September 01, 2018

John McCain, Warmonger

But I didn't come here to talk to you about McCain's misogyny or homophobia or...

January 2018

January 28, 2018

Alone, No One Wins Freedom: An Appreciation of Ursula K. Le Guin

I was nine years old, give or take a year or two, and I was...

November 2017

November 16, 2017

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

One of the Three Treasures of Buddhism is the sangha, the community of seekers. Budo...

November 13, 2017

Healing At Autumn Fires

Then I started dancing. And it became a ritual, the unloading of a million pounds...

October 2017

October 30, 2017

Samhain: My Father Is Dead

My father's death puts me in a different relationship with my ancestors, and I will...

October 17, 2017

An Open Letter To Barry Manilow: Please Help My Mom

Dear Mr. Manilow, The last thing my father did in his life was take my...

September 2017

September 25, 2017

A Eulogy For My Father, Mark Swiss

We have hopes about an afterlife. I guess some of us have fears -- Dad...

September 19, 2017

Life Is a Series of Dogs

If we love a dog, the odds are very good that they will die before...

July 2017

July 14, 2017

FSG: Music and The Morrigan

So the Morrigan, that Celtic goddess (or trinity of goddesses) of war and death (but...

June 2017

June 17, 2017

Remembering Ringo

A heart that never cares is safe from grieving. But that's not what hearts are...

February 2017

February 02, 2017

Groundhog Day and Ikuru

So he does three things: he works to improve himself. He comes to love the...

October 2016

October 25, 2016

Samhain in the Hospital: My Mother Is Not Dead

And it's occurred to me that the hospital is a liminal space: between life and...

October 17, 2016

One Cup of Coffee

But now I could lose it right here in the cafeteria over this empty coffeepot....

September 2016

September 30, 2016

More Alive Than Words

But I looked out the window. Across the parking lot, across the road, a small...

September 26, 2016

In Praise of Miss Sue

At one point she told me that she couldn't imagine ever having a job where...