A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog called Lists for Living. In it, I talked about a close friend who, upon finding she had a terminal illness, refused the vast variety of experimental medical programs that the doctors offered (and added that "they MIGHT help").
She chose not to let them make her body into a human guinea pig, so she... Read more
FAITH, HOPE, AND A CHRISTMAS LIST
For a wide variety of reasons, Christmas is not my favorite time of year. I know several other people who feel the same way. This holiday has become so commercialized that the magic and fun no longer seem to be there. Although I've been making lots of gingerbread boys, biscochitos, fudge, and my... Read more
After about a hundred years of raising 3 kids as a divorced single parent (OK -- it wasn't QUITE that long. It just seemed like it at times), I decided to treat myself to a rather unique present for my 65th birthday. I've been a nature photographer for a long time, and like many people, fell in love with Africa. Most of my friends will tell you... Read more
As many of our readers are aware, I returned recently from East Africa, where I spent many weeks as a volunteer working with teenagers in a prison there. Many people on hearing this, say "Oh, how awful!" I LOVED my young prisoners, many who had lived much of their lives as "street kids" -- no family and stealing food merely to... Read more
In a recent National Annual Report for the Arthritis Foundation (2007), I read an interview about an osteoarthritis patient like many of us. She said "I was somewhat forcibly living in solitude with my disease. I felt I was a "failure" and had a loss of independence due to my lack of stability and balance -- I was robbed of things I value and... Read more