Wellness

Our culture treats birth as a joyous event. A woman who creates her birth plan has a myriad of options. She gets to choose who is present at the birth, and how and where she gives birth, creating a sacred, self-directed event. We’ve come a long way in choosing to honor that part of the circle of life. Those involved in the conscious dying movement think we ought to treat death the same way. MORE »

The mood in the room was so calm no one even noticed her breathing had stopped. Minutes later, the room filled with a sense of peace that can only be felt with the understanding that a soul’s journey had just taken a new turn. With no struggle, no screams and no regrets, a beloved wife, sister, mother, grandmother, friend and nursing professor had continued along her quest for true spirituality with nothing holding her back and all the love in the world propelling her forward. MORE »

Linda Gerdner, author of Grandfather’s Story Cloth, which shines a light on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Hmong Community, made a couple of stops in St. Paul recently. The disease is a progressive brain disease which is growing in numbers among the Asian community. As many as 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time. Today it is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. MORE »

After months of discussion, the St. Paul city council is set to vote on an ordinance regulating sober houses on Wednesday.

City councilmember Russ Stark explained in a telephone interview that, at present, “There’s no registration per se. There’s 34 or 35 sober houses that have been identified, meaning they have self-identified with the building inspectors. There’s likely to be more than that out there.” MORE »