I’m quite certain that I will never drive an army tank.  And I absolutely know I will not be the first American woman taught to maneuver one of those vehicles.  Nevertheless, I have been blessed with the gift of riding alongside the woman who did have that honor, my hospice patient Rosella.  No, I was not literally beside her in that tank; I have been, however, there with her in my imagination and – more significantly – in my heart. When I heard the rudimentary facts about Rosella learning to drive an army tank several times before I met her, […]

“Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.”  The priest repeated this phrase again and again, fashioning crosses out of ashes on each of our foreheads.  As I waited for my turn to participate in this ancient rite, I became overwhelmed with emotion.  While the memory that I will die is never far from my mind, this particular liturgy highlights this realization in expansive ways by allowing me to connect with others through the communal embrace of mortality.  And this year, wearing a heart monitor to gauge just how compromised my heart had become, I was perhaps even […]