Riding the Pooka

Going public

Okay so in December 2013 I started this here blog. I wrote my way through breast cancer treatments in 2014. I mostly took 2015 off to hide in my shell. Then this year the words started to pour out like rain gushing out of the gutter on the corner of my house. It is both…

Looking for a Three Legged Cat

There is a most amazing creature living in my house. She is so beautiful, and funny and fierce. Sometimes when I see her I think if she can be happy with three legs, I can be happy with one breast. Other times I feel a crushing wave of sadness that her exquisite perfection, her athletic…

Portals to ALL ONE!

Recently I connected with a another blogger, after words on her blog sparked a chord within me. She got me to thinking about how our actions and choices and approaches impact others – often inadvertently. Arriving at work today, still thinking about her post, a convertible pulled up beside me with the radio blaring, it was the…

Ah Statistics! Tamoxifen Update #3

As I continue to question and research Tamoxifen I see that there is no way of applying statistics to the individual, just the possibility of having a generality. Statistics are like a squall passing through, who knows where the rain will fall? Or who will be at the right angle for a rainbow? There are always those…

“Mama More Berries!”

If you haven’t noticed before I am fairly obsessed with berries, enough so that my firstborn son uttered his first sentence about them. All the wild berries are frankly one of the best parts of living in the Northwest. They are like jewels, filled with vitamins and a microcosm of yum. I love them all, even the…

The Answer to Everything.

Sometimes I wish that I had a magic wand. Well, often I wish that I had a magic wand. Sometimes I wish I had the answer to all our problems. The recent waves of crazy make this more so than usual. Each time something happens it seems to up the ante on violence. Like the…

The Buddha in the borderlands

There are so many words swirling around these days. The world is filled to overflowing with events. I have been writing and writing – considering and dreaming – processing and lamenting. There are 31 posts in what I call the draft drawer. Tackling topics like; racism in America, hard friendships, Tamoxifen.. again, the healing power…

Loan Sharks and Cat Naps

“Better listen girl to what I’m tellin’ you You better listen girl, or we are through You better stop all your foolin’ around Stop your runnin’ all over town ‘Cause you’re pushin’ too hard Pushin’ too hard on me (too hard)” The Seeds 1966 Crash. Time’s up. Your goose is cooked. I think that I…

Space, the final frontier… for healing that is.

If you read my last post on the five actions of wellness I mentioned mindfulness – which I define as the deliberate attempt to cultivate a disciplined mind. Essentially attaining a more relaxed state at will. The goal isn’t to never have intense feelings, the goal is to be able to observe my feelings when they arrive, and to…

The Five Actions of Wellness

Okay, so I have been paying attention to what many wise folks have to say about what creates health. Studies on basically every form of major bad-health ju-ju; cancering, heart disease, diabetes, depression, etc., all point to the profound benefit of five things that are labeled “lifestyle choices.” Good Nutrition – mostly plant based Detoxification Joyful…

On the Emotional Aftermath of Mastectomy.

This is another post from the draft vault. Written May 2014 a few weeks after my mastectomy and never posted. Though I have written more on the theme of this piece since 2014, I post this now, at the two year anniversary of my surgery, in service to all those who are wrestling with their own feelings either in the…

Charging up the Soul Batteries

A few weeks back in the last rays of sun Joe and I took a stroll on the there-and-back-again version of our neighborhood loop. The light was so good I wanted to drink it. We passed only one person in the perfect evening – one of our neighbors, enjoying his own stroll. He alerted us to…