I’m finally emerging from hibernation on my latest book project, this one now definitively titled The Recovery-Friendly Church: Loving and Ministering to People with Addictions (InterVarsity Press) and slated for release this fall. (Last week the book’s publication with IVP finally became official with the signing of a contract and after a long vetting process that involved consideration of, rather overwhelmingly, six offers of publication from prospective publishers.) This week I put the finishing touches on our now completed manuscript—or at least a first draft of a manuscript, which has been my big excuse for not coming by this intersection during the last few months. So I am glad to be back.

This morning I am grateful for the life and wisdom of the late Stanford neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, who died Monday at the age of 37, having only recently witnessed the birth of his daughter Cady. Kalanithi’s meditations on dying and making the most of time were published yesterday in The Washington Post. Here is Kalanithi with some parting thoughts for his daughter and for the rest of us.