The Green Fuse.

Sitting on my patio, I noticed a green shoot of something that did not look like a blueberry bush, growing out of the wooden planter containing the blueberry bush that I planted in April. On closer inspection, it proved to be a tomato plant, which puzzled me greatly until I remembered that last summer, this pot had […]

Proof of Life.

It was pointed out to me by my mentor, Jill, that my last post about my chronic condition being my full-time job was good, but missing a critical element – the connection between what I’m doing to take care of myself, and the reasons I have to. I am not just a victim of a random disease […]

The Best Defense…

Protective coloring. Personal camouflage. Adaptations. Defense mechanisms. All things designed to protect and deflect. The dictionary defines camouflage in nature as the defensive reaction of an organism, using a combination of materials or coloration for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see or by disguising them as something else. Animals and insects also […]

Body Language.

One of my favorite novels is by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Titled, You Should Have Known, it’s about a family therapist/psychologist who has recently written a book that describes the relationship theory she has come to after years of practice: namely, that people share who they are with others in a hundred different ways. From the […]

Crossing the Border.

A recent horoscope I read (Rob Brezsny is amazing, look him up!) advised me to use caution as “you gear up for your rite of passage or metaphorical border crossing.” I usually love Brezsny’s horoscopes but this one really caught my attention because of the sheer number of role changes, rites of passage, and crossings […]

The Life-Changing Magic of Not Cluttering Shit Up in the First Place.

While Dad was still living alone, not only did his house start to fall apart, but he also filled it with junk: hoarded 2-liter recyclable pop bottles, food containers, and paper – including both the contents and the corresponding envelope of every piece of mail that entered the house. He also stashed food, afraid he […]

What if Everything Just Happens.

“We are neither our point of origin nor our goal; the former is long gone, the latter forever recedes as we move forward. We are the journey itself…The great rhythm of gain and loss is outside of our control; what remains within our control is the attitude of willingness to find in even the bitterest […]

RAge, Part 2.

“The inability to process and express feelings effectively, and the tendency to serve the needs of others before even considering one’s own, are common patterns in people who develop chronic illness.” Gabor Mate, When the Body Says No. This one sentence describes me to a T. As a child, I struggled at all times to […]

RAge.

In 1946, a John Hopkins study showed that cancer patients tend to deny and repress conflictual emotions and impulses to a higher degree than do other people. Gabor Mate, author of, When the Body Says No, indicates that there may be a cancer type; those who have difficulty expressing anger may be more prone to […]

Body, Meet Mind…Oh, You’ve Met?

How did the mind and the body become so separate in Western medicine when it is obvious that they are connected in every way? It seems so counterintuitive to divide the mind and body into two regions, as it were; emotional issues separate from physical and vice versa. How could it be possible that the […]