DYING, ILLNESS, AND AGING WITH GRACE

Years ago I tested health food cookbooks for a series for the Washington Post food section, and my family found most of the dishes pretty dreadful. More recently I've found some health-oriented cookbooks that contain really tasty and attractive recipes. I've also found some good sources of information on healthy eating. Start with: The New American Plate Cookbook, a good-for-you cookbook filled with delicious recipes from the American Institute for Cancer Research. I also love a harder-to-find single-issue magazine: Vegetarian Times Presents Healing Foods Cookbook, Read More 

"The Purpose Prize®, now in its seventh year, is the nation's only large-scale investment in people over 60 who are combining their passion and experience for social good. The Prize awards up to $100,000 each to five people in encore careers creating new ways to solve tough social problems. Read More 

Thanks to the Borehamwood Cancorder Club for this, which will bring a smile to many not necessarily wrinkled faces.



If for some reason this doesn't lead you to a deeply amusing video  Read More 

If you saw the film "Four Weddings and a Funeral, you may remember the beautiful W.H. Auden poem, "Stop All the Clocks"? Nemo Shaw has set it to music. If I've done this right, you should be able to watch it here, thanks to the Songs of Loss and Grief site:

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More samples of musical selections suitable for funerals and memorial services, of which this is my favorite:
• Ashokan Farewell (this beautiful song performed by Jay Ungar And Molly Mason With Fiddle Fever is from the album Songs Of The Civil War
• Amazing Grace (choices range from bagpipe music, The King's Own Scottish Borderers Military Band) to a more lyrical version sung by Sarah Brightman Read More 

Listening to samples for these wonderful hymns and inspirational melodies will, I hope, help you plan your farewell or memorial services:
• Abide with Me (Metropolitan Boys Choir)
• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (The Joslin Grove Choral Society) Read More 

More links to samples of possible numbers to play at funerals and memorial services. Today:
• Albanoni, Tomaso. Albinoni’s Adagio (London Philharmonic; composed as Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ by Remo Giazotto, based on a fragment of a tune by Albinoni found in the ruins of the Dresden State Library, which was destroyed  Read More 

By popular request, I have linked to samples of popular secular music I've recommended for funerals and memorial services. These often nostalgic songs thypically work because they evoke the life and times of the person being celebrated. They're good for a stroll down memory lane when you're alive, too.  Read More 

"Why caring for my aging father has me wishing he would die," reads the subhead for Sandra Tsing Loh's story in The Atlantic, Daddy Issues (March 2012). Often, unresolved issues with siblings become the greatest sources of stress,  Read More 

See wisdom in action: The Arc of Life: Huston Smith on Life, Death & Beyond (Huston Smith interviewed by Ken Dychtwald).

This is a sample. You can order the full tape on  Read More