Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
“Maybe there is a purpose to this struggle,” I say, offhanded, to a visiting friend. We have just made our way to the edge of the falls, the trek difficult for me today, as my legs are not cooperating. I’m hanging onto her arm for balance. I’d been telling her about another visit I’d had, […]
Read MoreSurgery behind us, we shift to recovery mode – he gingerly navigating the days of healing, while I try to brush off the cobwebs of exhaustion. As relief washes away the dregs of worry, I am still trying to sort out my emotions. Ric’s condition is black and white – a blockage requiring opening. Problem […]
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“No matter what your religious affiliation, your relationship with God the Father, is directly representative of your relationship to small ‘f’ father.” Although I am paraphrasing here, the words from Joan Borysenko rang true. The workshop was entitled “The Heart of the Healer”. Borysenko was challenging us to examine our beliefs. My father was intolerant, […]
Read MoreGrowing up, my mother told me over and over that I was not loveable. I heard it so often, it became a personal truth. I didn’t examine or question it until my former husband told me, after seventeen years, that he didn’t love me, had never loved me. Of course, I told myself, I am […]
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The things that inspire us,a moving read,steps we have takenepiphanies,perceptions,quotations,magical spaces,truths,a kiss…all worth mentioning. Thanks to all who participated this week! Word-Whelmed WomanProsceniumReena SaxenaStuff and what if…one letter UPSgeoilAWISEWOMANSJOURNEYparallax See you tomorrow for a new challenge! (Featured image from personal collection and available through Society6 and Redbubble.)
Read MoreReading 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. […]
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One Woman's Quest II 