Most days my dog and I walk to our neighborhood park. It is the highlight of her sweet, furry day. And mine, too, usually. On the way we pass a white house on a corner that is a group home for severely disabled young adults. A big, fancy van, the […]
I’m certainly not a poet, or even a writer, but this space gave me a needed outlet during an extraordinary shift in my life. Six years ago I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I think I wrote this the day I got the phone call. Funny. I remember writing it […]
I don’t watch much TV and I don’t follow the royals except when they do something amusingly stupid, but I watched the Meghan & Harry interview with Oprah and read some of the follow-up fallout to (rolls eyes) Her Majesty et al. Here then are my important insights, so pay […]
Release me to the skies in a million pieces To ride the thermals with the hawks, delighted, enchanted, free Then let me float past them, effortless, to oblivion
When I was diagnosed with lung cancer, one of the first things I did was Google “what it’s like to die from lung cancer.” In April 2015, the odds of beating my disease were pretty dismal. Convinced I wouldn’t make it past Christmas, I started reading to prepare for what […]
At 12:45 this afternoon, I said goodbye to my sweet Moses — another (like all of my cats) foster fail. I could never let them go. Fourteen years ago, he was rescued as a very young kitten, found among the tall reeds in a pond. I don’t know if he […]
There are two small index cards with quotations taped to the neck of my computer monitor. They are the first things I see when I sit down at the computer. I put them there when I was going through chemo and radiation when god you’ll reach for anything to get […]
Some of the following is paraphrased. Me (going through mail, hands letter addressed to husband): Here, something from the physical therapy people for you. H (after reading letter): They don’t have my secondary insurance listed and are informing me they will bill me directly for the balance of my treatment. […]
Nothing important enough to take up your time except this. Poet Mary Oliver died this week on January 17th. She was important enough in my life to acknowledge her passing here. The comfort and introspection I derived from her writing while I was going through cancer treatment was lifesaving. I […]
Unless you have or have had cancer, you won’t appreciate the significance of the title of this post. Cancer anniversaries, regrettably nicknamed “cancerversaries” (see “anywho,” “guestimate”), are measured not from diagnosis, but from end of treatment. I don’t know about all protocols, but mine consisted of six weeks of radiation […]
