living and love.

How cute is this??

I'm going up North in a few days and cannot wait to see my beautiful nephew! Sometimes I marvel at how we got so lucky to have him. He really is an amazing, thoughtful, loving little boy. My mom told me that when they were at Blockbuster last week, he saw the little toys they have there and threw a fit and refused to leave until they bought Aunt JJ something. I just melted when I heard that. And wouldn't you know it, he picked something Hello Kitty. I love Hello Kitty. How Trey knew that, I have no idea. I certainly have never told him. But that's him, full of surprises. I am so happy and thankful to be his Aunt JJ.

Being that I recently blogged about this, both here and on sheknows.com, I figured I'd mention that this week's New Yorker has an excellent article by Atul Gawande on end-of-life care in America. He writes about the same themes I, and other articles, have touched on - how much is enough, when do we decide to stop, medicine's reluctance to admit defeat, etc. I really think we need a whole new way of looking at illness and death and hospice and living. How that should come about, I have no idea. It's a process, I guess, and different for everyone. But I think many aspects are universal - dignity, quality of living, chances to say goodbye and say what you need to, etc.

"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart." - Maya Angelou