Riding the Pooka

Magical Realism

Many folks upon hearing they have a serious diagnosis of any kind, go immediately in one of a few different directions. Either they hunker down to being realistic at all costs, go look up their prognosis on actuary charts and prepare for the worst. Or they might try denial, LALALALA. Perhaps they decide to “Fight Fight Fight – never…

Contributing Factors Part 2- Wellness

My last post focused on a top ten list of why I believe I started cancering. This here post is a roundup of things I count towards health. I’m curious about what others are trying- please comment below as to what feels healing to you. When ever I have gone into the Oncologist’s office, or…

Contributing Factors Part 1 – Sickness

Part One – Why do we get sick? When my friend Jenniveeve, found out I was having a cancer party in my boob, she called me up to offer support. She wanted to know Why I thought I had cancer? The ten million dollar question to be sure. We talked about what would happen if…

Winged seeds of childhood relics

My father was a small town osteopathic doctor. The community was not wealthy, and he accepted samples from the pharmaceutical reps so as to provide free medicine to some of his patients. Giving them handfuls of little two pill packages to see them through their illness. When his children were sick, we often got samples too,…

Tuning in

This was a really fun weekend. My friend Rebecca Harrison came to the coast to offer individual Alexander Method sessions, and to teach another short Alexander workshop. The topic this time was the senses – tuning into ourselves from the inside out. The class was really intimate, just four of us. It seems that this was…

Time Tracking Shenanigans

Lately I have been re-noticing that I am still losing track of things/people/tasks. Time is pretty variable these days. As I have always been shall we say “time challenged” this isn’t exactly new. However as certain aspects of my chemo-brain continue to heal, namely spacial perception, it makes the other ways my brain has been changed far more noticeable, and…

Lost… and then Found

Miracle Chicken 2015 was a bad year for chickens around here. Our flock in town was much diminished by predators, and the flock out at our Svensen garden had a complete massacre,… or so we thought. Then a few weeks ago, our friend who gardens out at our place saw one lone chicken. She survived feral all…

The Ocean Within – Part Three

This is part three in a series about the lymph, it deals with some of the ins and outs of lymphedema. Click here to read Part One-Yin Magic about the lymph as divine feminine & Part Two- Watersheds about the correlations between the Earth and our bodies. Part Three – Eating Rats The lymph system is…

The Ocean Within – Part Two.

This is the second in a three part series of posts on the lymph system. See Part One- Yin Magic here. Part Two – Watershed Way back in 1996 when Joe and I moved to Astoria, my daily walk to work took me along the railroad tracks on the waterfront. Through a still active cannery, with huge…

The Ocean Within – Part One

This is part one of a three part post on the Lymphatic System. Part One – Yin Magic I pretty much think about my lymph system every day. That part of my brain is likely a super highway of neurons by now, while not so long ago it was a barren country two track. I think about my…

Walking into Joy

Whoa – Beauty abounds all around. Due to a confluence of factors, our car in need of repair, newly developed tailbone-bike-seat-incompatibility, plus beautiful weather, all conspired towards my walking to and from work this week. Basically providing me with two hours each day to reflect on the state of my life, the universe and everything. My goal this…

Black Lives Matter

I start writing this having just returned from a community discussion hosted by the Lower Columbia Diversity Project. Facilitated by historian, author and activist Walidah Imarisha, and featuring a panel of Adrienne Cabouet, from Black Lives Matter Portland, and Leila Holstein, co-director of the Portland PFLAG Black Chapter. There were roughly 40-50 people in attendance. (Click here…