A Year to Live - How would that be?

A few nights ago our monthly book group discussed the book, A Year to Live by Stephen Levine. It had been my recommendation last month, I think, and another member heartily endorsed it as she had read it already. We agreed that it would be an interesting book for discussion. Within a week, I got rumblings from book group members that they weren’t finding it easy to read. Also, soon after that meeting, one of the group members found out that she was once again needing treatment for a recurrent serious health issue. While we all had a great time visiting and enjoying the wine and goodies provided by our hostess, it was a tough discussion. We each seemed to be distracted in our own way. THIS IS A DIFFICULT SUBJECT – this death/dying thing… I felt somewhat defensive about the book. Agreed, it was hard to read, not just because of the subject, but his treatment of the material and his “words” seemed rather dated given that Levine, a 30-year practitioner of western Buddhism, wrote the book over 10 years ago while training people to help support others through the dying process. It ended up that we had an interesting frank albeit somewhat uncomfortable discussion of our responses to the book.

That night I had a dream that I was with two other friends and we were having a sleep-over that ended up being a very late night discussion about the many ups and downs of life and our concern for our friend who is dealing with the health issue. In this dream, I go to the bathroom and find my mother, who died 14 years ago, in a dry bathtub, fully clothed. Surprised, I apologized for keeping her awake with our late-night discussion. We talked while she remained laying in the tub. She was so very supportive, more so than I remember... as she was often tapped out by our large family. The gist of our talk was that she assured me that everything would be okay.

I woke up during the night with that dream vivid in my mind and realized that it was a good dream all around. How special it was to have an extremely rare meeting with my mother, and the result of our talk left me reassured about my friend. I wanted to share this experience with others. Let’s face it… the subject of death and dying is up for us… not necessarily at this moment, but sooner or later. Whether it is the inevitability of our own, family members, friends.... we will deal with this many times. Perhaps we can be more supportive and compassionate with ourselves and others so that we may more fully enjoy our lives and to accept that this is the natural process.
Matilda

What is a Brazilian Wax?

I was wondering exactly what it entails and how prevalent it is for women at various ages... I had a general idea what it was, something along the lines of a Bikini Wax, but more so, I figured.... Googled it and found out about as much as I would ever want or need to know. However, I did not go much further than the description.. should have looked at research on how common it is. This procedure, shall we call it, was suggested by a man friend a couple of years ago or should I say "boy"friend. For the record, he was only a year younger than me. Am I from the dark ages? Did I miss an important part of sexual/cultural awareness education or is this the norm now? If it is prevalent - why have I not heard more about it from my friends? What happened to feminism? I should have asked that guy if he would have hot wax poured on his "privates" and the hair ripped off from that entire lower part of the body. I am SORRY, but do women really do this on a regular basis? Please educate me about this. If I knew how to put a "meaningful" picture here, I would... Matty

Best Bed Partner

I awoke at about 2 am the other day and noticed that my very sweet (most of the time) dog had his head on my pillow, MY PILLOW- not an extra pillow! It reminded me of a comment made just last week by a manfriend (briefly a lover)….anyway…Just last week we met for an infrequent lunch… he commented that his dogs weren’t allowed on his bed - I have no idea how/why that subject came up. Maybe it was right after he told me that he liked my hair blonde. I just completed a year’s exploration of my hair “roots”…. and when asked why his dogs weren’t allowed on his bed, he replied that it wouldn’t be good when he was a guest or had a guest. I let that one go by without a response - he knows the situation at my place. Do you think he was trying to say that’s why we aren’t sharing a bed!?! For most days of the year my 6 yr old puppy is the sweetest, kindest, affectionate and non-judgmental bed partner I could ever hope for. Yes, he does have a breath problem and he scratches a little, but I’m getting off easy….don’t you think? Matty