Great reads!
Summer reading… What did you love and learn in your explorations this summer—whether (physical) books, audiobooks, or maybe even podcasts?
While my list isn’t typical when I reflect on the phrase “summer reading” (which means “beach reads” or light fare to me), I have loved and learned a lot. Here’s my list (beginning in late spring):
10% Happier, Dan Harris- How to Say Good-bye, Wendy McNaughton
- Kalyanamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual Care, Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford
- Last Things: A Graphic Memoir About ALS, Marissa Moss
- Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars, Rick Louis and Lara Antal
- The World Could Be Otherwise, Norman Fischer
- There is Never Anything but the Present, Alan Watts
I am in the midst of the workbook Living Fully and Dying Prepared by Francesca Lynn Arnoldy and cannot recommend it highly enough for everyone. She does in writing and through exercises what I endeavor to do in all my sessions on visual obituary creation and end-of-life planning—engaging in creative explorations of our lives and our wishes for care in our final days and weeks. This work brings a new appreciation of our present lives.
Are you looking ahead to September? I am planning new reading adventures, knowing that I have some books on my list for my studies and others
that have piqued my interest. Next up for me is How to Tell a Story by The Moth, though I will listen to it in the car on my way to Maine in a few weeks. After listening to the book, I plan to call The Moth pitch line with an idea. Unbelievably, after attending the Creative Mornings program in which Catherine Burns was the speaker, I won The Moth: A Game of Storytelling! While it hasn’t arrived in the mail yet I can’t wait to open it and discover how to play. No doubt it will enhance my storytelling skills!
I’d love to hear what’s on your list—from the summer and the fall! I hope you will share!
My topic, “Creating a Visual Obituary,” is one of my favorites, though I have to say that I had never before facilitated this offering with graduate students. And, I had never worked with a group that had studied dying, death, caregiving, grieving, and memorialization in such depth. I was keen to discover how they would respond to the subject matter (obituaries), the 50 prompts I had created, and the activity (drawing their obituary based on the questions/prompts that resonated for them), which I had used with older audiences.
