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January 2016:

Since releasing Feel Me Brave some months ago now, it has been interesting to see where this book wants to go.  We are grateful to friends and family who have spread the word and to bookstores that have made a home for it on their shelves.  A special thank you goes to friends Cathy and Jim Everett who helped give the book a place at a recent education conference in Boston for the Hospice and Palliative Care Federation of Massachusetts.  And thank you as well to Ira Byock who assisted in giving our story recognition at a recent Hospice and Palliative Care event in California.  Whether on an individual or larger scale, we are always thrilled when the book connects with people in a meaningful way.

In the coming months, we are looking forward to two events that will entail my and my father’s participation.  The first will be a reflection at the Mennonite Church in Bridgewater, VT on January 31st, facilitated by a good friend who is a member there.   Later in February, we will contribute to a training event at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center on behalf of chaplaincy staff and interns, as well as staff members from a local Hospice organization who are seeking guidance in their work with pediatric patients.  I feel deeply drawn to that intersection of spirituality, medicine, and end of life issues, and honored to participate in an exploration of these critical matters with people in related professions.   

Finally, I am grateful to my father Walter who has been such a loving and steadfast partner in this whole endeavor.  With the book and the various, interesting pathways it has uncovered, we are slowly and tenderly working with the raw material that is our grief, and giving it a shape and purpose infused with remarkable energy and meaning.  I could not have done it alone!  So thank you, Dad, for being so in tune and aligned in our efforts to honor Ryland and keep his presence so strong in our lives.