Nurture Practices VS Self Soothing Strategies There is a time and a place for all. What do you choose to do now? Self-love, and by extension self-care, is on one end of a continuum, on the other end is self loathing. At any time we might be moving towards one end or the other, sometimes…
Category: Healing
An update on my new boring life…
My writing on this here blog seems to come to a standstill – languish, and then sputter and start up again for a brief sojourn. This is one such sojourn. In December it will be five years since my breast cancering diagnosis, that arbitrary border of the recurrence danger zone. Though of course there are…
Cancer: tightrope, time bomb, or agent of freedom?
There is a tightrope walked by folks after a cancering diagnosis. On one end of the rope is the diagnosis, on the other is death. A diagnosis changes your perception of how long that rope might be. Whereas prior to diagnosis most folks imagine themselves living to a ripe old age while dandling smiling great grand babies on…
Red Tent Project
This is a page about a project I have been working on in my studio to celebrate the divine feminine in my life. Here is a story of the Maiden, Mother and Crone I once entered a dark realm where I looked death in the face. I was stripped of everything that I thought made…
Ten tips to free yourself of the Clutter Catch 22
Sometimes it feels like forces in this world are actively working against inner peace and joy. Our modern world inflicts too much chaos and overwhelm upon us. Let’s face it our lives are inundated with mayhem not of our own making, which may lead to us creating mayhem of our own making. Of the modern afflictions…
First Love Yourself
“And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know? Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.” Mary Oliver Joe keeps coming back to the quote from Mary Oliver from the poem, To Begin With, the Sweet Grass, that is really resonating with him right now. “And what do I…
Neuropathy: the numbing down of cancering folk.
Neuropathy is a side effect of many cancering drugs. It can have long lasting, and even permanent impact. Balancing effectiveness with neurotoxic side effects is the job of the oncologist. I for one would not want to be in the driver’s seat for that one. Especially with a rubric where weight and age are the…
Letting down my guard.
Which wolf do you want to feed? Fear, hate and loathing on one side, compassion and joy on the other. Which wolf do you want to be stronger? What you feed grows stronger. These days my focus in life is shifting – I am looking for ways to feed the loving wolf. It could be…
Cha-Cha-Cha Changes
Have you ever come across a missive from an earlier version of yourself? A note or writing or creative project long forgotten that upon discovery doesn’t inspire any rekindling of memory? It seems like a small miracle- finding such a small snippet. As if the younger smarter me had it all figured out, and left…
Eating well in the age of cancer.
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” -Virginia Woolf At this very moment, mothers the world over are asking their children these questions. “What did you have for breakfast?” and “What have you eaten today?” Food intimately links us to life. The first action of a baby after being born…
What you need to know about Existential Suffering
Pain and Suffering are different things. This is something I have pondered in superficial ways at times. After reading quite an amazing post, Pain vs Suffering: Why they’re not the same for Patients, on the blog Heart Sisters, my mind is whirling. Carolyn Thomas’s well researched article explains so much. Though she is a longtime cardiology patient, her insights…
Riding the Pooka 