In reflecting on the challenges of 2020-2023, the author recognizes a personal chiasm, marked by hardships but also growth and joy. Through health struggles and financial strains, significant victories emerged, symbolizing answers to prayers. The author encourages reframing experiences of loss as opportunities for deeper growth, reminding us of the support received during tough times.
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…
What happens in your heart when you lose an ovary on Mother’s Day?
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…
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…
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…
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…
I go back to work tomorrow. Eek! and Yay! All at the same time. I’ve been out of work for four months and four days and I’m struggling to put into words how I feel currently. I’m calling this season The Comeback Tour where I will try to celebrate all the things that were off…
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…
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…
