The most important relationship you will ever have in your lifetime is with yourself. Before we can take care of others, we must first attend to our self. However, this is the task that is so hard to accomplish; to look deeply in the mirror and see the person you have created through your life choices. What we see is often not what we want to see. If we see a stranger, we have failed to develop an understanding of self. Today's society, in which we live, does not honor and cherish your relationship with yourself. Careers, material possessions and the like have not only become more important than self, but have become regarded, in today's convoluted world, as the ultimate measure of self-worth in which all are judged. In macrobiotics, we have found a tool to understanding one's inner being; that being the age old practice of the ginger compress. By shifting the focus of our lives, from hectic work schedules to a more simple life, cooking macrobiotically, and doing ginger compresses, we are forced to look at that being in the mirror. This is truly the most difficult part of practicing macrobiotics; getting to know yourself. I have most recently found a most amazing teacher in my life and that is death of a very close family member. Like a ginger compress, death of a loved one forces one to look deeply at the inner core. Although this is not always a pleasant experience, it is not one which you are free to choose (as ginger compress). To look death in the eyes and face that which all of us must, at some point, is a healing experience (and a humbling one). It also can be terrifying. Everything you thought you knew gets reevaluated, relearned, redone. The life you were living becomes a thing of the past as you enter this brave new world. In this way, death becomes the great healer.