Archive For The “Thoughts” Category
I can’t help but notice after three years of receiving treatment for cancer and having labs drawn that many nurses are quick to accuse my veins of any number of sins: namely teeny-weeny, rolly, valvesy, jumpy, scarred, stingy, positional, blown, and generally speaking uncooperative. The seven dwarfs of phlebotomy. No, make that eight. I’m starting…
There are those who are trying to set fire to the world, we are in danger, there is time only to work slowly,there is no time not to love. We are, once again, in a conflagration, once again at war. Once again, we must find the heart of peace, even now put out the fires,…
One day, sitting in the reclining chair at the overcrowded cancer center waiting… waiting for the black belt nurse with the sharpest vampire teeth to draw my blood waiting until the bathroom is open so I can pee into the little cup waiting for the nurse to take the lab samples away to the lab…
On Thinking I Don’t Need Help A good friend counseled me this morning that many of our core beliefs are implanted by the time we are twelve years old, and that it’s worth reviewing them now and again to see if they have stood the test of time. Are they still useful or are they…
Wild horses of the West persecuted as modern-day pests not allowed to breathe or rest even newborn foals are put to the test BLM bought by the cattlemen’s lobby makes helicopter roundups a thrilling new hobby. Humans brutally force the iconic horse with no sense of history or an ounce of remorse. The spindly…
“No doubt you now have many decisions to make based on quality and quantity.” So far, this is what my doctors have said when they discuss the recurrence of brain cancer and possible treatment plans. And then they start squirming, clearly signaling their wish for us to go or for them to exit so we…
July 22, 2022 Dear sensei glioblastoma Today is the third anniversary of discovering your presence in my brain. I thought you disappeared last October when I said with amazement that I was clear for a year. But this week’s MRI shows you are back with a few little friends. The R word has changed…
Left hand buzzing, fingers numb as if coated with wax, goofy dexterity and lack of coordination and strength: I’m used to feeling all these symptoms: the fallout of brain cancer in the right parietal lobe. But on occasion, especially if I’m tired and haven’t taken two naps a day my left hand goes blank, off-line,…
I’ve always thought of my hands as my favorite body part, the most reliable tools through which to express myself Drawing, painting, centering a mound of slippery clay on the potter’s wheel, carving the clay when it had dried to leather hard. Tossing the clay scraps back into water and kneading them back into pliable…