"As you die, you wilt. Not only your body, but also your psyche. ...The Dalai Lama suggests that when you feel helpless, practice altruism. But when I've felt helpless, or I get hurt, or something doesn't happen 'right,' my old ugly habits of self-protection and control show their claws. It's awfully humbling. No one wants to hurt their friends who faithfully get up to administer meds at four am, or gently clean your wounds and dry your peaches. So I've been practicing…."
A new piece of writing by Hanna!
Emily Mohn-Slate is a writer and writing teacher who works with mindfulness, creativity, motherhood, aging and other topics. She invited Hanna to write “about her practice of welcoming suffering in the midst of ALS, and her practice to soften into What Is.” The result is a beautiful essay—a particular treasure because of the effort writing requires of Hanna these days, with limited energy and total reliance on her gaze-tracking device.
Here are two ways to enjoy Hanna’s piece, “I am here now, I trust my wise heart. We are here now, we trust our wise heart”—by listening, or by reading.
Read on Emily Mohn-Slate's newsletter
With an introduction by Emily, and photographs by Maranie Staab.
Listen
Here is a recording of the piece, as read by the voice of Hanna’s gaze-tracking device.