Losing My Ability to Breathe Somewhere, between diagnosis and deliverance, I forgot how to breathe. I find myself, at odd moments, holding my breath, not in anticipation or fright, but simply because I have forgotten the rhythm of breathing. I didn’t even know about my loss until I started experiencing… Read more“What You don’t Know About Breathing Can Really Hurt You”
Tag: stress
Just Keep Swimming
This has been quite the year already. One month of the year out of the way and Dory’s song, “Just keep swimming…just keep swimming” seems to be the most fitting song for my life. My mother-in-law has to go into a care-home. Water rises. Spend Christmas cleaning out a lifetime… Read more“Just Keep Swimming”
A Letter to Caregivers
Dear Caregiver Friend: I’m sending you this letter because I used to send letters. I used to do a lot of things… I used to be a great aunt. Well, I’m a great-aunt now, but I used to be a great aunt. I sent post cards and birthday cards and… Read more“A Letter to Caregivers”
Why It Took Me 14 Years to Climb a Mountain
Standing on the top of a mountain called Craig’s Lookout, I felt triumphant, proud and, for the first time in years, I felt like ME. Craig’s Lookout is not like Pike’s Peak or anything famous. It’s not even all that amazingly steep, nor dangerous, nor high. It only took me… Read more“Why It Took Me 14 Years to Climb a Mountain”
Five-Minute Friday: Mercy
I stand in the darkness doing the mosquito slap-dance while the cicadas press in around me and the moon plays peek-a-boo with the clouds. I breathe deeply of the mesquite and spilled diesel fuel and try to refocus my impatience at the situation. At the end of a long day… Read more“Five-Minute Friday: Mercy”
