Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.
It’s no mystery that stripped of all obligations and confined to a bed provides the coveted time to pursue writing skills, however; it is the actual experience of illness (in my case ME/CFS) that provides the platform for expansion. Although I have been a ‘writer’ since my early years, the past four have marked a […]
Here’s yours truly reading Absence and They’re Just Family, After All at an Open Mic (only my third). To see the full poems, please click on the links.
Every morning, I open my email to find a slew of new messages indicating that my fellow bloggers have been busy. Typically, I scroll through and prioritize. These are a few of my must reads: Soul Gatherings is my first go-to place. Theresa offers a dose of daily inspiration served up with beautiful graphics. cookingforthetimechallenged, […]
“Grandma, do you drive?” “No, Love, not right now.?” “But you can drive, right? Do you have a license…actually, what is a license?” “It’s a little piece of paper that says you’ve passed your driving test.” We’re snuggled into bed for the night, the second of a two-night sleepover. She is five, and I am […]
First, a disclaimer: I am in no way an authority on poetry; it is just something I happen to do… a lot. In fact, my original blog, One Woman’s Quest, is dedicated to my poetic escapades. A cancer scare prompted me to start writing a blog in the first place – I needed somewhere to […]
Systemic best describes the characteristic of ME/CFS: the exhaustion, like a lead weight, hits muscles, organs, and brain creating an overall resistance to movement. Physical energy is engaged in a battle against spirit. Two weeks ago, I attended wedding preparations and celebrations, babysat my five-year-old granddaughter, and felt like I was finally progressing beyond this […]
A recent Facebook post suggested that babysitting contributes to prolonged life for grandparents. Given how exhausted I am after spending time with my granddaughters, I find that hard to believe, and yet… there is an undeniable glow that lingers for days every time I am exposed to those precious little souls. “You spend all of […]
“What’s her name?” “I can’t tell you.” “What? Why not? Do I know her?” “No, Mom. If I tell you her name, you’ll ask too many questions that I’m not ready to answer yet.” “Oh.” “A son is sweetness and strength and mystery;” Call it Mother’s intuition, but I could tell there was someone special […]
(Sometimes, the best way to approach dream interpretation is to retell the dream from a different character’s perspective. What follows is just that. The ‘she’ referred to is the ego self. To gain further insight, I also wrote a poem, simply titled “Glue”.) How can I justify this current state of malaise, given the opulence […]
To-do list: write publish a blog post shower and dress strip the bed and remake vacuum and dust bedroom put away groceries from yesterday prep veggies for cooking make vegetable curry make red lentil kale soup make spicy tomato chick pea soup put away clothes from laundry Reality: slept late wrote and published blog post […]