Holiday rituals and traditions connect families over the generations. Communicating and preserving our memories and stories can revitalize this year's holidays, nourish the souls of those we love, and even encourage family healing and forgiveness.

December days are short, the nights long and dark. Dispel the dark...

Thanksgiving is our most celebrated American holiday. It's our day to connect with each other and to strengthen our gratitude muscles as we gather to celebrate bounty and eat together. It's a time when the legacy of family ritual is repeated and remembered. We feel belonging and our hearts open....

My younger sister Judy died on the 15th of October; she was 66; our birthdays were on the same day. As kids we were inseparable; as adolescents and young mothers we were very close. As the decades passed, we drifted further apart, and being from a family skilled in...

"And on the seventh day, God ceased work and rested," and Sabbath came into existence. But vayinafash means more than rest. A more accurate translation is "God restored His soul," according to Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas. It must then be our task as seniors to restore our souls, once our...

Ethical wills are about values, not valuables. But what about the category of stuff - of value or not? You know "you can't take it with you," but it's too simple to see stuff either as necessities to function in the material world, or merely as useless acquisitions.

What...

Ethical wills are about our values, not our money. But what we think and do with money, how we use it, to whom or whether we give it, is part of our legacy of values. People are more open about sex and death than about money, which may be our...

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day this 4th of July, we are witness to people dying for freedom in Iran and around the globe. What value could be more important than freedom?

The purpose of ethical wills (legacy...

Did you receive a blessing from your father when you were a child? When you left home, married, had a child of your own? Was it explicitly stated or written to you? Do you know in your heart that your father loved you and had he been able, he'd...

What is the relationship between self care and writing legacy letters? Before addressing a group of professional caregivers, my preparation was an opportunity to reassess how legacy writing nourishes our souls, how legacy writing is a component of spiritual self-care.

One way to promote spiritual well-being is through the...

In theory, Memorial Day is to honor the memories of those who sacrificed their lives in military service for our country. In practice, some visit cemeteries to plant flowers at graves of family, but typically we celebrate this long weekend, marking it by opening swimming pools and beginning the bar-b-q...

Transforming the Ancient Ethical Will into Contemporary Legacy Letters

Let's start at the beginning. What is an ethical will? It's a non-legal document written to communicate values and wisdom, history, stories, and love from one generation to another. Where did it come from? From the Judeo-Christian tradition, the...