Through

Through

Through has become my favorite and least favorite of all the prepositions. It also represented my 2023 better than any other word I’ve found. I choose two words each year. One on January 1st for the upcoming year as a hope for the blank year ahead, and one on December 31 as a reflection of…

Kenny’s First Birthday

Kenny’s First Birthday

You may consider it weird that I took a day off of work to celebrate the “birth” of my bionic foot. Kenny was the chosen name of the cadaver bone that now resides in my heel. This once-patella-now-calcaneus wedge of bone is having a second life… and so am I. My foot was irrevocably shifted…

Humbling & Healing

Humbling & Healing

If I had to summarize my experience in 2021, it would be both humbling and healing. I was humbled in ways I have never been before. Post reconstructive surgery, I needed help to drive, to get to appointments, to shower, to wash my clothes, and to remember what day it was. I am fiercely independent…

Merit Badges

Merit Badges

2021 was not my best year ever. But I ended it better than it started… and slowly my playfulness is returning. I decided that if life was going to be this challenging and require this much work, I should at least have something to show for it. So I started earning Adulthood Merit Badges. I…

Bittersweet

Bittersweet

Lately life has seemed to be a complex jumble of emotions. I rarely feel pure joy or pure sadness or pure anger, but rather a mix of different expressions of each all at once. I’ve loved the move Inside Out since it was released. Maybe you’ve seen it. It envisions a “headquarters” in the brain…

Astronaut Training

Astronaut Training

All my life, I’ve been fascinated with space. The vastness, the mystery, the complexity. If I could attend space camp as an adult, I would sign up tomorrow. I keep track of launches. I do space themed marathons just for the bling. I can nerd out about planets with my little friends — the only…

The Mother of Invention

The Mother of Invention

You’ve heard it said that necessity is the mother of invention. It is true! Having many newly acquired needs post surgery has increased my need for inventive and creative solutions. However, my family has also learned some new skills with me, as the mother (and father and brother) of invention. Life is hard. I’m unable…

The Dark Night of the Sole

The Dark Night of the Sole

I have a touch of the dramatic in me. As I anticipated what it would feel like to have foot reconstructive surgery and be restricted in my activities for months, I began to call it “The Dark Night of the Sole.” In this season, I will be challenged and stretched. In this season, I will…