Grief always seems to be sneaking in the back door. Yesterday as I was leaving church, a designer I used to work with signaled to tell me that another former colleague (our age, late 50s) had died suddenly of a heart attack the day before. My best friend's father recently had a stroke and, as he struggles through rehab, her mother, I learned this morning, has been hospitalized with an apparent heart attack. Another dear friend's wife is dying. Such deep, deep sadness. As I pray for these people I love, I ask that God will bring healing as only God can do, revealing grace somehow in the heart-wrenching folds of loss and grief.

A woman approached me recently after one of my readings. She shared her understanding that hearing is often the last faculty to leave a dying person. So at her loved one's deathbed, she telephoned friends and family, held the telephone to his ear and had others recall the things they loved and cherished about him. Such a loving act, and so healing for all of them.