Notes from a Songwriter

An exploration of life and death through the lens of everyday immortality.

Sep 19, 2018
1 min

What made you laugh & cry?

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . I found myself gasping for air and trying to keep my mascara intact one evening as my friends and I made our way home. We had a lovely evening supporting

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Jamie Wyman

Aug 15, 2018
1 min

Which SuperPower?

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . I want to teleport. This is my go-to superpower and this week it would be especially helpful so I could administer some hugs to friends who have had some

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Jamie Wyman

Jul 27, 2018
3 min

Money or Time?

One day, an improbable thing happened: someone thanked me for my work. I was working for Child Protective Services and in my role, on most days, everyone hated me. The kids, the parents, the attorneys, the foster parents, the other family members. The phrase “you can’t please everyone” was more accurately stated “you can’t please anyone” in this job. But one day, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), gathered up all the social workers in my office and sat us down to say t

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Jamie Wyman

Jul 16, 2018
2 min

Change is in the Air

The word grief is most often associated with the death of a loved one. But we experience grief throughout our lives in other ways and this week I have been able to hold space for several friends going through these “little” losses. Stories of breakups, major life transitions, and loss of friendships have punctuated my week. First, I want to thank my friends for trusting me with their grief. I want to acknowledge that it takes courage to share struggle with another human and I

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Jamie Wyman

Jul 11, 2018
1 min

If you could plan your last words...

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . Once again I have come up with a question that is hard to answer because there are so many possibilities. We cannot know the circumstances of our death o

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Jamie Wyman

Jul 2, 2018
3 min

A Million Paper Cranes

As a helping professional, one of the things I have struggled with is the inadequacy of “self care.” The usual suggestions to take a bath or have a cup of tea seem ill equipped to take on the gravity of a week’s worth of suffering. Not to mention that the weeks continue to pile on top of each other and self care is easy to relegate to the bottom of the to do list. This week I was inspired to try something new in the self care realm, something that begins to acknowledge the ef

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Jamie Wyman

Jun 25, 2018
3 min

Ida(ho) and Josh

The Silver Valley welcomed me with open arms. A mining community through and through, the residents struggle to concede that tourism may be its next gold mine. That grit is what gives the community its charm. I was in Kellogg and Wallace, Idaho for three days, set to play some music in the evenings. I found myself with a lot of free time during the day. A LOT of time. So much time I wondered if I had entered another dimension. I suddenly couldn’t remember what I do with all m

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Jamie Wyman

Jun 11, 2018
3 min

The Last

Yesterday, June 10, 2018, I was driving back from a rejuvenating day at the hot springs. I was feeling relaxed and receptive and I suddenly became aware that my grandmother had passed away. It was 7:13 p.m. About an hour later, my mom called to tell me the news. I have been blessed with many grandmothers in this life and she was the last. She was the quintessential mother archetype. Margery was the mother of my step father and has been in my life since I was about 9 years old

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Jamie Wyman

Jun 8, 2018
1 min

Make It Go Away

It's #FindYourSong Friday - the day for music, art, film and poetry about life, death and immortality. Here is this week’s pick: We are all going to die, but illness rocks us to our core. Whether it is our own illness or someone we love, it quickly causes us to shift perspective. Have we been living the life we want to live? Have we said everything we need to say to those we love? Illness also causes us to question how we got there and why it is happening to us. Sheryl Crow's

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Jamie Wyman

May 23, 2018
1 min

What are 3 words to describe...

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . There are so many awesome elders in my life to choose from, but for this question I will pick my friend Charlene. She is: Feisty Confident Surprising Cha

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Jamie Wyman

May 16, 2018
1 min

What are your 15 minutes of fame?

If you could pick your 15 minutes of fame, what would you be famous for? The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . This is easy. I want to be famous for helping people through songwriting...throu

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Jamie Wyman

May 4, 2018
2 min

The Days Are Getting Longer

David and Jenny have been married for over 30 years. Jenny has Alzheimer’s disease and David cares for her with a tenderness that few would be able to match. Every morning he puts on a record as he prepares breakfast. On this morning, they dance. In “The Days Are Getting Longer,” director Ted Terrenoire captures the beauty and the grief that have woven their way into this relationship. Jenny has changed, and David clearly mourns the loss of the woman he knew, but he stays dev

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Jamie Wyman

May 3, 2018
2 min

What Would Mother Theresa Do?

Mother Theresa was known for her work in the slums, tending to people who were sick, dying, and living in extreme poverty. She was canonized as a saint in 2016. It seems she created the blueprint for how to #LovetheWorld. But even for Mother Theresa, this task was not easy. In fact, she said: “Jesus said love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world.” - Mother Theresa In my estimation, however, we love the whole world when we acknowledge that we cannot "save" it. We lo

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Jamie Wyman

May 2, 2018
2 min

What is your plan B?

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . Laura van Dernoot Lipsky asks this question in her book Trauma Stewardship (read my review here). I always know it's time for a change when my attitude a

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Jamie Wyman

May 1, 2018
4 min

Book Review: Trauma Stewardship

I’m a nerd. I love going to professional conferences to learn new things and get jazzed up about my work. Even so, what usually happens, is that I leave with a head full of new ideas and good intentions. I have learned a lot of things from my conference adventures but most of them did not stick, with a few notable exceptions. The most notable of these exceptions was the time I heard Laura van Dernoot Lipsky speak about “trauma stewardship” at the annual conference put on by t

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Jamie Wyman

Apr 30, 2018
3 min

Love the World

One night I had a dream: I was with a group of people and we were organizing something — like a march or a protest. I think some of them were people I knew from my graduate program in Women’s Studies and my best friend was there. It was the type of gathering I have been part of on a few different occasions in real life, the kind of gathering that was born out of the second wave of feminism: the kitchen table in a small home full of love and the smell of herbs. In this dream,

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Jamie Wyman

Apr 27, 2018
1 min

Passing On

It's #FindYourSong Friday - the day for music, art, film and poetry about life, death and immortality. Here is this week’s pick (click the link to read the poem): Passing On By Andrew Motion This week I chose Passing On by Andrew Motion with the theme of #WatchLifeUnfold as my guide. Motion explores the hyperawareness we can experience when someone is near the end of their life. Every detail of the room becomes more vivid. We notice how we breathe or if our clothes are too lo

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Jamie Wyman

Apr 26, 2018
2 min

Rituals Bring Comfort at Work

I first heard someone use the term “unfold” in relation to opening up to one’s spiritual gifts a couple of years ago. The word caught my attention and I imagined gifts, skills, stories, songs, and other things unfolding like a rose — each petal shifting imperceptibly until finally it is open. Unfold seems like such a sweet word. It is not like “find” or “build” or “identify.” It is inevitable. It does not require force. It takes as much time as it needs. You cannot hurry the

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Jamie Wyman

Apr 25, 2018
1 min

Why does coffee smell so good?

The "Questions Over Coffee" series is designed to instigate interesting conversation, especially for individuals, loved ones, and caregivers coping with illness. The questions can also be used to connect with healthy loved ones, friends, clients, strangers and ourselves. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea!) and start talking . . . Sometimes attempting to answer a rhetorical question helps us access magic. The smell of coffee instantly brings me back to my body. I walk my dogs past

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Jamie Wyman

Apr 24, 2018
3 min

Book Review: A New Earth

What would a new earth look like? There is a problem with this question because it supposes that we can create one in the future. But in his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle tells us that it can only exist in the present moment. This week we explore what it is like to find peace as we #WatchLifeUnfold. As humans we tend to spend a lot of time in the past and the future. We want things. And that’s okay because that’s how we create a beautiful life for ourselves and innovate. W

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