Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Listen to your body. Glib advice, especially if ignoring the body is habitual, and compliance is not listed as a character trait. What would my body have to say, I wonder. My legs, stiff and inflexible, lumbering along like Frankenstein; are they telling me to put them up, resign myself to rest? My arms, heavy […]
Read MoreI’m in love with my doctor. I realized it this afternoon, when having just returned from a quarterly visit; I opened my email to find three messages from his office, all with attachments outlining the new course of treatment he has assigned me. It’s not that I didn’t know the emails were coming – handouts […]
Read MoreEven when illness is chronic there is a tendency to look for signs and hope of healing. It catches me every time : the false hope that I may have turned a corner. Undeniably, there is progress. Last night I was able to bathe alone without worry of falling or passing out. Last year, I […]
Read More
Taking a moment to remember all whose lives have been sacrificed that there might peace in the world to remember my father, his brother, my grandfather and the countless men, and women who fought for the right to live in a democratic country; for freedom of speech, and right to religious practice, who dared to dream […]
Read MoreI get that this illness thing may be part of higher learning; a divinely inspired gift to awaken my soul, but really? My resume is already humongous – I am over-animated with life experiences. Okay, okay, so we are co-creators, make life choices, must be engaged in the process, but what kind of school is […]
Read MoreMinutes after my first husband and I were settling into our honeymoon suite, I got a call from my father advising me that my oldest sister had gone from the wedding reception to emergency. “I think you better come,” he told me solemnly. So we packed up and headed back. I had known that my […]
Read MoreLiving with ME/CFS is often a matter of trial and error – the line between what the body is capable of and overexertion is never quite definable, except in the aftermath. Yesterday, I accompanied my daughter to Costco, which was teeming with cars and people. We found a parking spot close to the entrance, and […]
Read MoreHesitantly, I turn the key in the lock and push the door ajar. A waft of warm, stale air accosts me. “Hello?” I’d been told there might not be a response. Something is resting against the door, so I push harder to let myself in. The beam from the light of the open doorway is […]
Read MoreAmanda Lindhout, along with Sara Corbett, has written a riveting tale of her kidnapping and captivity during a trip to Somalia. I first became interested in Lindhout’s story when I caught a glimpse of an interview on a television program. How, I wondered, does someone survive such a horrendous experience? A House in the Sky, […]
Read MoreI am learning to live in the moment, a lesson imposed by chronic illness. No use regretting yesterday’s actions or inactions, and no point fretting about or planning the future. What I know, is that there are moments of time, fleeting intervals that pass, some with profound relevance, some seemingly meaningless, and many in between. […]
Read More
One Woman's Quest II 