What could I possibly write today that wouldn’t be outdated by tomorrow? It’s a small world? Six or less degrees of separation? Ok, here’s one. A woman named Suzanne Barakat works at San Francisco General. She’s a doctor, doing her family practice residency. I worked at SF General for 18 years, retiring in 2003 when … Continue reading Election day…
I want to be like this poster… but sometimes instead my “vessel” just gets filled with fear, anger, and… congestion. ’Tis the season. And so I am. Sick, that is. and… home. Alone. Seven days and counting. Not the flu, but the worst cold ever. Being me, I easily made the leap from ah sick! … Continue reading Home. Sick*. Human.
My own political awakening began early and started manifesting in high school. I had little understanding of how the system worked but my parents were Democrats and I had a natural affinity for liberal politics. After all, by the time I was eleven, I’d already experienced being part of several target groups — children, girl … Continue reading Tom Hayden and me.
I have a new word for you. Well, not new to all of you. It’s a very popular word in buddhism, probably only after the words dharma and dukkha. (Dukkha being suffering, so you know that’s popular). Partly we love papancea because it sounds so funny – pah-pahn-scha (accent on the second syllable and the whole … Continue reading Papancea
I first learned about titration as a nurse. It’s like this. I might need to start my patient on a less than full dose of medication (because otherwise the medicine is too strong and might cause harm), then gently increase (titrate) the dose upward, so their body can adjust slowly to the medicine’s effects. Jon … Continue reading Titration & the election
Maybe it was because I never got married. Hmmm? That’s not exactly true. I did. Get married, in a fashion. In “bad fashion” to be exact. Bright orange corduroy maternity pants. Green plaid flannel maternity top. Blue adidas with white stripes. I can laugh now about my “wedding” outfit, my wedding day, though to be … Continue reading Re-thinking wedding days…or… to quote Bob Dylan – “Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.”
March, 2015. By the end of the week-long workshop in Maui with Cheryl Strayed and sixty-some other women writers, I felt inspired. People had a variety of writing projects in the works or planned. I decided to start writing a blog. Sometimes you just gotta dive in, get yourself wet (maybe like a baptism) before … Continue reading On writing.
The Buddha said the way to happiness is the middle path — not the extreme (and sometimes grotesque) body-denying practices of the wandering ascetic sadhus attempting to counter-intuitively enhance their well-being and siddhis. Nor would self-indulgence —an endless acquisition of things — work. In other words, the Buddha taught neither aversion nor greed would bring … Continue reading Wanting, not wanting…
Because I am retired I re-create myself most days, albeit often lazily. I’m working on that. If someone asks what I “do”, I’m usually taken aback, as if I hadn’t thought of this question before, which is absurd; I think about it a lot . Sometimes I worry my lack of a good response makes … Continue reading #ItMatters
Some people are good at dating. Not me. I was never good at it. I like reading Anne Lamott’s mishaps with dating. Her sense of humor and irony, her doubt and willingness… Her unwillingness to forsake herself, even when everything is rocky as hell, including herself. I love Anne Lamott. It’s not like I wouldn’t … Continue reading “…soldier go, soldier come but barrack remain.”
Gayle Markow: As I am... 