Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Reading is as important to my day as breathing, and for a long while I was gasping for breath in a spurt of uninspired works. Then I stumbled on Staceyann Chin’s memoir, The Other Side of Paradise, and found myself panting for more. The audio version of Chin’s life story is narrated by the author […]
Read MoreJust when I thought I knew where we were headed, life threw another curveball. It happened simply enough. Ric experienced a brief period of blindness in one eye. “Just the bottom half of the eye,” he’d tell the doctor later. “And some weakness in my left arm.” The family doctor recommended a trip to Urgent […]
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Illness affords me time,and time begs observation. Used to think that if I prayed enough,was enlightened enough, I could call uponthe presence of a divine spirit to intervene,change the course of suffering. Now, I know that we are not called uponto alter God’s plans, control not withinour mortal hands, but we are commanded to observe, […]
Read More“Isolation threatens to consume me,” I tell my therapist in a recent visit. “I’m not willing to disappear into the woodwork again.” The doctors say my illness is relapsing; it’s how they explain the onslaught of infections. I’ve just finished another round of even stronger antibiotics. While my immune system fights invasion, I am staving […]
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Shadows stalk our conversations, Mother and I. It’s not so much what is said, but what hovers between the lines spoken. Fear stalks her – death so close – and I sidestep darkness. It’s an illusion, of course, this thought that we can think ourselves well, or avoid pain by focusing only on the light. […]
Read More“We need language to tell us who we are, how we feel, what we’re capable of – to explain the pains and glory of our existence.” – Maya Angelou “Do you not like the book you are reading?” My granddaughter shrugs in response. Normally an avid reader, I wonder why she keeps setting this particular […]
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Jane Juska has been on my mind all week. At sixty-six, the divorced, mother of one, decided it was time to reclaim her sexuality, so she posted an ad in The New York Review of Books: Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a […]
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Post marital disruption, I would go to the river every day, say a prayer for guidance, power walk off the stress, and then sit in quiet contemplation facing the water. My son referred to it as “Mom finding inner peace.” Power walking is a thing of the past, and every day is no longer doable, […]
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In July of 2013, I contracted pneumonia. After a course of treatment, I continued to experience weakness, shortness of breath, and frequent tachycardia. By January, I had seen a gamut of specialists, received no answers, and was worse. Test after test eliminated obvious possibilities. In the end, I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. The doctor […]
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Angel of Death. The name had started to stick. As a volunteer, working with the dying, my job was to help patients relax, ease some of their stress. “She needs you more than me,” on old Irish doctor said as we both arrived at a patient’s home simultaneously. “I can give her medication for the […]
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One Woman's Quest II 