Everyone has favorite form of “therapy,” the things they do to relax, to relieve tension, to reward themselves for completing a big project. When I’m journeying through a period of stress in my life, words and music always offer a balm to my troubled soul. Sometimes it’s writing and playing the piano - physically engaging in activities with music and words.  Other times it’s reading or listening, entering into the ideas and melodies created by others.

During this past month, I relied on all of those therapeutic techniques to get me through the stress and sadness associated with my mother’s illness and death. I read a lot and I wrote a lot, and carried books and journals back and forth to the hospital and the hospice care center.