When I gazed into the calm, round eyes of the auburn-coloured quarter-horse, I thought of all the people who ask me, “Do animals have souls?’ Miss Tanya snuffled as I rubbed the underside of her head, and I could imagine her saying, “This human is okay. By the way, do you have an apple for me?” The racehorse’s owners wanted my friend Brian Phillips, an animal acupuncturist, to treat Miss Tanya’s skittishness, and Brian had asked me to accompany him, so I could link with this beautiful horse’s soul and try to find out why Miss Tanya was so frenzied whenever she stepped onto a race track.

My husband, Benjamin, is writing a book on hospice and palliative care with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. For the past month, he’s been recording the stories of people who work with the dying – administrative personnel, doctors, nurses, art and music therapists, therapeutic touch workers, and spiritual and bereavement counselors. He’s also talking with those whose loved ones have passed away. One of the most intriguing stories he’s collected was from David Maginley, a Lutheran pastor and chaplain at the Cancer Program of the Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Maginley integrates Christianity with Buddhist practices to help him understand attitudes of fear and attachment, which comes in handy when he works with patients who are struggling with their attachments to people, to memories, and even to their body.