At one time my days regularly started at 2:50 a.m. That is when my alarm went off to set in motion my work as a baker. It was a rare day that the alarm actually woke me though, it was most usual for me to already be awake with my mind racing ahead or behind like…
Category: World of Possibility
Stopping the Black Snake with Prayer & Discipline
2017 Update: Because this page continues to get traffic it requires an update. President Trump allowed the pipeline to continue, and authorized additional brutality against the water protectors as soon as he took office. There is still active resistance to this even though the camp was shut down. There have been some successes in the…
Imagine 2017: the year your dreams come true…
With all of the events of 2016 rattling around our minds, it can be hard to imagine how anything can be right in the world. How it is possible for our lives to move in a positive direction. I know. The thing is that when we step into the place of getting clear on what…
Is my time well spent?
Minutes to Hours. My friend Gila was recently out kayaking with another friend when they found a message in a bottle. There was no action requested in the note contained within. What was the motivation for the person who made it and then set it adrift? What is the motivation behind making anything? Sometimes we do…
Happy Anniversary – 3 years and counting.
Happy Anniversary to me! I mean, Happy Cancerversary to me! Three years ago today in 2013 I got the biopsy that started my breast cancer treatment adventures. It seems like something to celebrate because every month that passes without evidence of a return of disease, there is a slightly better chance that I will remain…
Navigating the Medicine Show
“Step right up! Step right up! Hear about the amazing healing powers of Dr. SmartyPants’ patented formula!” If pharmaceutical drugs were distributed out of the back of a charlatan wagon at a medicine show would they have fewer takers? Wait a moment, what about commercials for prescription drugs? You know the ones, with the huge list of possible…
Standing up for Water.
The mighty Columbia flows past my front door. Meanwhile on the other side of the continental divide, her sister river, the great Missouri, with her winding ways and beautiful chalk bluffs, flows towards the east. The song birds are somewhat different there, singing in the cottonwood trees that line the water. Though this time of year they are few…
Broody Hens
We have been keeping chickens for nearly ten years. These days we have three large hens, and a whole mess of bantams. This fall three of the bantams were broody – one successfully hatched 4 chicks, and the other two spent their time arguing over who got to sit on a golf ball. Which made me wonder, am I…
Burning Books and The End of Bad Expectations.
I have a confession. I have burned two books in my life. I am not a fan of censorship, I did read Fahrenheit 451, and to be fair I didn’t seek out every copy and destroy them, or start to steal them from public libraries to prevent others from reading them. Nonetheless I am a book burner. The…
Am I a Better Person Yet?
Does cancer make me a better person than you? Does it endow me with Special Qualities? How about Special Wisdom? Have I Conquered it? Am I now one of the Chosen Ones? Is the “Suffering” I “Endured” during treatments more terrible than anything you might have possibly experienced outside of cancer land? Am I a…
Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
When my MRI appointment came onto the scene in September my anxiety reached near epic proportions. It is stunning to me that I could be more, much more, anxious waiting for a routine check up than I was at nearly any time during my year of treatments in 2014. I am coming to recognize that anxiety is in part simply a communication between…
Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig
I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. This is true. I also live in the rainiest city in the US – we receive close to twice as much as the famously rainy Seattle and Portland. I live in the midst of a bonafide temperate rain forest. Which is particularly noticeable…
Riding the Pooka 