Review - Birdology , by Carolyne Van Der Meer Carolyne Van Der Meer guides us into paying attention to what is going on in the outdoors, e...

  No matter what holiday we celebrate at this time of year, our memories of being HOME for it are probably similar.  The idea of going H...

I’m delighted to have an essay published today in Paper Dragon out of Drexel University. “Poking Death’s Boundary” explores our fascination ...

To read my new posts, head over to: https://markliebenow.blogspot.com

 I am thrilled to have two essays published recently. Both of them are about grieving someone you love and trying to make sense of the world...

           I don’t know how to pray. I only know to sit in a quiet place and listen.  - Mark

              Find a bench where you can pause your busyness.

  In the morning, before you begin your activities, find a quiet place where you can listen to the day opening up. 

Simplify your life.  Listen. Take care of others. Mark

  Come to the dinner table where you have a place among others who have cancer or are grieving the loss of someone they love. Dine with thos...

 (I posted this last year. I still like it.) It’s late December and the woods are quiet.  I stand in my backyard lost in the mystery of tree...

  The holiday season is a time of renewing our faith in people and in matters unseen, scraping together enough hope to get us through the co...

 When we are living with great heartache, it’s difficult to imagine ever feeling happy again. Suffering takes our life over, and we’re tempt...

 I did not understand death or grief until my wife Evelyn died unexpectedly. She was in her 40s when she had a heart attack. Her death uproo...

  I’m thrilled to share this news with you!  Under the Sun literary journal chose my essay as one of its nominations for the Pushcart Prize....

Helen Valier, A History of Prostate Cancer, 2016, Palgrave MacMillan.     This is the best book I’ve found that covers the scope of prostat...

  for Colleen After the death of a spouse or a loved one, lethargy quickly sets in. It’s hard to find the motivation to do anything. The n...

  Anticipatory Grief Anne Boyer’s book about surviving aggressive triple-negative breast cancer, The Undying, takes the reader inside what i...

Laurie Fitz, Rick Bernardo, and I were talking on their Connections Radio show recently about how the symbolism and ways of Coyote are helpf...

  (a post from four years ago)               Robin Williams died on August 11, 2014 from suicide. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that l...