The past couple years, I’ve spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices and hospitals. Mostly that was with my mother, who died earlier this year after a long series of illnesses.   But I’ve also had some issues with my own stomach/digestion--likely the result of my own aging and the stress of helping care for my mother, grieving her death, and managing the estate.   I am sure many of you have been through similar challenges and I know that, as Buddhism teaches, life is full of challenges like this. A central teaching of Buddhism is that sickness, old age, and death are inevitable in human life and they are hard! Photo: A bowl of noodles is a great comfort food on a stressful day The way modern American medical care is provided, along with the stresses of COVID, have made the last couple years a challenging time to get great medical care. Everyone is busy and many interactions are mediated by computers, limiting human interaction.   Over the past year my family and I filled in forms ove