Atul Gawande raises questions that help us be as perfectly imperfect as we are--mortal and holding very specific things precious. He suggests that doctors ask us, "What are you priorities? What are you willing to sacrifice?" I would broaden those very questions, to help us not only die, but also live gracefully. These very questions could help us uncover an unconditional willingness to center our lives around what we hold most precious. Not only to say, Okay, life will not b

"Many African-American midwives in rural southeastern US of the 20th-century were proud that they could'“plow like men, and pick cotton by moonlight.' They said they were uneducated but that midwifery put their 'big minds' to work." (pg. 63, Listen to Me Good, Margaret Charles Smith and Linda Holmes.) About 11 years ago, while pregnant, I wrote and article called "Call Me A Pregnant Woman" to bring up questions about midwifing big mind and birthing insight: "Gautama Buddha s

Martin Rees with Krista Tippett on "...deeper mystery,... ... related to the nature of space itself. There’s evidence, ... in the last 10 years or so that even empty space, when you take away all the dark matter and all the atoms, still exerts a kind of force. It exerts a sort of push or tension on everything.... ...even empty space has a kind of structure, and we don’t understand that at all. In fact, uh, most of us would guess that empty space does have a structure but on a