May
16
As the winter has subsided, making way for summer, my dog, Haze, has begun to enjoy the outdoors a bit more. He also has many human friends in the neighborhood. There’s an older man who sits in his beach chair in the warm months and offers him a dog treat or two. There’s a younger …
Apr
10
David Kuo, the former associate of the White House’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives in the Bush Administration who wrote a scathing book about how the administration failed to live up to their promises for the office, died from brain cancer last Friday at the much too young age of 44. We were “virtual” colleagues, …
Feb
13
So I hate to start out this post with some bad news, but here goes… You are going to die. That’s the central message of Ash Wednesday. It’s why we tell people to turn away from sin or we remind them that they are dust. We say so because it is a simple truth. Our …
Feb
10
My 43rd birthday was yesterday and a friend wrote me and said each time you think that a birthday is one step closer to death, remind yourself that you should stop counting the steps and just enjoy the walk. Amen, brother. And at the end of that walk we hope to find ourselves remembering that …
Feb
08
I remember eating with a bunch of friends one day and the subject of end-of-life issues came up. One friend, Jim, and environmentalist at heart said: “I’m going to be composted!” We all kind of giggled uncomfortably, but realized that he wanted to return to the earth as quickly as possible. It was consistent with …
Feb
07
So we all have had people die in our lives, but some seem to stand out more than some others. Some examples from my life include: 1) Dave Connors, one of my college roommates, who died when he was 25. It was a true tragedy, albeit not totally unexpected. He was always in bad health …
Feb
06
While I understand that in theory drone strikes keep troops off the ground, I also think they cause great harm. First of all, people are killed by a faceless attacker. But are they really faceless? No…someone exists behind the computer where the strike is executed. That is beginning to cause great psychological harm to those …
Feb
06
So many of you weighed in on yesterday’s death cafe’ question. So here is some thoughts to ponder for today: The best way to die for me would be…. 1) Surrounded by love: Whether that’s physical presence or just the knowledge that I am loved by God and others and have loved in return. I …
Feb
05
So today is the first topic in our Online Death Cafe. What would be the worst way to die? I thought of a bunch of different answers: 1) Alone: Many people feel that dying alone would be horrible. I’m reminded of a friend whose family had surrounded his grandfather in the hospital in his last …
Feb
05
So for the next few days I’d like to talk about death in anticipation of Ash Wednesday, because we all are going to die and the ashes on our foreheads are there to remind us of that not-so-simple truth. I’ve decided on five topics that we can talk about for the remainder of this week …
Mike Hayes is an author, commentator, Campus Minister and Spiritual Director. He founded the award winning BustedHalo.com in 2001 and wrote the book Googling God with Paulist Press in 2007. Mike is currently a Campus Minister at The University at Buffalo where he serves on the staff of St Joseph University Church. He is available for speaking engagements, retreats and personal spiritual direction.Social Widgets powered by AB-WebLog.com.
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