I spent the day at my Mother’s going through and boxing her lifetime collection of books, as she blissfully worked on crossword puzzles in the next room. I slowly sorted a wall of books from floor to ceiling. One box for her theology books, another box for her psychology texts, a third box I filled with a diverse collection New Age, feminist, and comparative religion books, and a fourth box with books on how to save the world from her many travels to India, Africa, and the Middle East.

It broke my heart to box up a lifetime of learning, but her Alzheimer’s disease has stolen her ability to need them any longer.

She has always been my greatest teacher.

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