Category Archives: Life
Just like Jake
I couldn’t help thinking about my nephew, Jake-o-rama, when I read the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The headline on my Google News item read: Medical debate: Should autism block a man from getting a heart transplant? The man, Paul … Continue reading
Writing Life
When I first decided to write a blog, I queried fellow writers on the Internet Writing Workshop and searched online for information as well. One of the toughest decisions I had to make was what to write about. Most advised … Continue reading
An unutterably ugly word: malignancy
In my last blog, My body, my battleground, I wrote about finding a lump in my breast, and having a biopsy. That was a month ago, though it seems more like an eon. Not quite a week afterwards, my doctor’s … Continue reading
My body, my battleground
When I found the lump, I began to regard my left breast as my enemy. I really didn’t want to look at or touch it. Until forced to acknowledge the appendage as mine, I’d ignore it. I discovered the intruder … Continue reading
Nuns off the leash
Nuns were a big part of my life for the eight years I attended Catholic school in a neighborhood in Philadelphia called Manayunk. At St. John the Baptist, we were taught by Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary … Continue reading
Stress relief
Because I’m always interested learning about health, I watched a four-year-old National Geographic Special, Stress: Portrait of a Killer. The documentary touched on primate research being conducted by several scientists, but drew extensively on the work of a neuroendocrinologist and … Continue reading
Old Lady in Combat Boots
When you consider how many images we’re bombarded with every day, it’s amazing that we can remember any of them, but we do. The ones that are burned into my consciousness are mostly old, from my college and early adult … Continue reading
The amnesia of motherhood
You’ve heard, if you’re a parent, the phrase, the amnesia of childbirth. Some people think the reason we mothers forget the pain of childbirth is that giving birth is so horrific we’d probably never do it again if we could … Continue reading
A healthy balance on the credit side
Life has taught me to be a little nervous when I’m really happy. I want to knock wood, or refuse to speak of it for fear the feeling will disappear. I remind myself of the Chinese peasant in The Good … Continue reading
Goodbye dry season
Every morning my eyes popped open to the same sun-soaked, chirp-filled backdrop of palm and cedar trees. Not that I’m complaining. It’s hard to imagine a better alarm clock. Sun-shy, I wished, to little avail, for a few clouds during … Continue reading
