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…

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…

Soothing surgery scars with some herbal whoop-ass.

Making herbal whoop-ass is something we really love to do here at the Hotel Daire. For several years we used Herbalism as the focus of our homeschool efforts. You can study chemistry, botany, math, anthropology, and history all while gaining useful skills and creating a family apothecary. Back in June Dr. Metro, my naturopath, suggested that I get…

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…

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…