Riding the Pooka

Even Unicorns have bad days.

A week ago, April 28th, was the three year anniversary of my mastectomy. When I am feeling good that seems like the day I became a unicorn. In those times I am filled with the miracle of being granted the all clear pathology report and what feels like a new more sparkly cancer free future….

The long long road to order.

I have had my fair share of inner struggles with Stuff… I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty complex relationship with some of the stuff in my life. This seems to be an inherited condition shared by family members. The animist ideas of Shinto, in which belongings have a spiritual force makes…

Reweaving my Life: unraveling, deconstructing & reimagining

In addition to whatever else I may be, I am a weaver. String and me go way back. It started when my wonderful Aunt Phyllis helped me weave a green rag rug on her floor loom when I was seven years old. Which later set me up for the work study job I got while pursuing…

Recurrence, an Oncoming Train?

(Disclaimer: Many of you know that I just visited my oncology team last week- Just so you know, all tests came back normal. I continue to have no evidence of returning disease. I am feeling happy, humble and very grateful for being in this place in this moment.) I have thought of western treatments like…

Is it time to retire my Oncologist?

Joe sent me a thought provoking article from the New Yorker on the need for incremental medicine, the kind practiced by old fashioned generalists, contrasted with the heroic medicine practiced by specialists. Which of course had me thinking about how Cancering treatments might be different if we valued the more subtle aspects of medicine as much as…

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…

Use your Power for Good.

There used to be an opera programmer on Coast Community Radio when we first moved to town in the mid 1990’s. The programmer, Ed David, was quite elderly at the time. Sometimes there were long pauses while he arranged a record on the turntable, or gathered his thoughts. His thoughts and descriptions were so good,…

Death Defying Acts, or Why I Blog.

There are many realms and layers of influence, the places where our lives intersect intimately with others. Any way you categorize life there are crossroads with other souls. Work, friendships, and these days the vast interwoven web of the world are all places of connection. This can be especially true around important life changing events….

A tool we need for the task at hand.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact of kind regards in my life. Specifically as it applies to health and happiness. It dawned on me that our thoughts for and about each other create some sort of force field, the Vibe-O-Sphere if you will. In a healthy Vibe-O-Sphere the community of folks trust each…

Busy-Body

You know the stereo type of the Busy Body? You know the one who is in everyone else’s business? Probably criticizing others while being blind to their own limitations? Well I am turning into one lately. Yep. It all started with what seemed like a really good thing. And then another really good thing. And…

Body as Enemy – Body as Ally

Some of my best thinking happens in the shower. The warm water and steam seem to open up my mind to possibilities that otherwise wouldn’t occur to me. The other morning it was a question: Am I being an ally to my body or am I my own worst enemy? This led to more questions….

Pete Rose Rooster and Gilda Chicken are Dead.

An open letter to the human companion of the dog who killed our chicken. In the last days of 2016, I came home after work to a flurry of feathers overlaying the grass at the curb. There were feathers even more numerously covering the stairs up to the house. I knew we had lost another chicken, but…