Dear Family and Friends, I hope this finds you deep in summer and enjoying all the ways summer has of giving us time, light, foods to nourish, and hopefully a bit of adventure thrown in here or there. It’s been almost 6 months since I last wrote and I am feeling 100%....
#25 Dazzling
When you read the word chimera you may or may not recall your Greek mythology. From Wikipedia we have: a chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional creature with parts taken from various animals, to describe anything composed of disparate parts or...
#23 Sandbox
Alas, I emerge from the worst of the transplant times back to some semblance of myself. I will need to process many things like the role of suffering and the purpose of pain, but for today, I’d like to focus on getting along well in the sandbox. I think about all the...
#22 Whipping Up
A lesser-known offering at MGH is their Integrative Therapies Program. On my first day back, I let the staff know I’d like access to it all: Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Massage, Acupressure, Art Therapy, Music Therapy. Why not? I have already reframed my central line...
#21 Rainbow Blessings
The list of things a rainbow might signify runs long and reads like feel-good-about-it all dime store psychobabble: acceptance, new beginnings, harmony, happiness, hope, inspiration, integration, love, luck, joy, transformation. Let’s not even get started with equity...
#20 Hawks
Many of us who live in the country have our lives punctuated by sightings of wild things. We like to think we’re civilized, eating with a spoon, paying our bills, opening the door for a friend, but then a row of bats is dangling from near the front door gutter, or a...
#19 Fair Weather Friend
Dear Friends and Family, Wow, it’s been a month since I posted any information about my current state of affairs! That is because I feel most excellent, enjoying time with family and friends, celebrating milestones, completing some home and yard projects, and gleaning...
#18 Ode to the Nurses
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi While I have amazing doctors and researchers at MGH and Dana Farber who have weighed in on my case and helped carve out a plan I trust will see me back to pristine health, it’s...
#17 Continuum
I don’t want to be cavalier. I don’t want to take one tiny bit for granted. And I don’t want to jinx anything. That said, I feel damn good. Bounced back from two months of chemo and now am taking in my immunotherapy 24/7, but have no sense of it, except for the...
#16 Fanny Pack
Having leukemia at this time of the war is compelling with such enormous loss and tragedy in the last week, while at the same time managing my own personal health challenge. I imagine in one way or another, we are each juggling hardships, large and small while also...