Writing – Page 16 – An Unexpected Life

Headache – Day?

This is a true test of my ability to survive ongoing pain without going crazy. Rather than blog, I’m going to ask for any chronic headache sufferer to respond with what has helped break the cycle for them. If you’ve had chronic headaches that go on for weeks, how have you ended the cycle? ThanksContinue reading “Headache – Day?”

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And did you get what you wanted from this life?

Anyone who reads this blog knows how much I respect Tara Brach, a psychotherapist and Buddhist teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington D.C.. I listen to her podcasts as often as I can, and find them immensely comforting. I don’t know who wrote the poem I quote below. It had a profound impactContinue reading “And did you get what you wanted from this life?”

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Headaches 2

Blinding pain awakens me. Have to come up with new strategies for coping. First, don’t panic. Second, find positives, don’t “second arrow” yourself with self-criticism. The desire I have to write is so strong, that even with the headache, and the glare of the laptop burning a hole in my head through each eye, I’mContinue reading “Headaches 2”

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Headaches

I love blogging, and have plans to do so much more with my blogs than I have. The only thing holding me back is headaches. Yes, we’ve all had them (or the majority of us have) and I was lucky enough for most of my life to not have any problem with them. Lately though,Continue reading “Headaches”

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Waves

An often used analogy in Buddhism is that we are all part of an ocean but see ourselves as the waves. When our emotions crest in ecstatic heights, or drop us into the roiling depths of a trough, we experience that as our “self.” Listening to great teachers like Pema Chodron, Tara Brach, and soContinue reading “Waves”

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Caring for yourself.

Lately I’ve been realizing there are quite a few ways you can kill yourself without slitting your wrists or turning the gas on in the garage. People smoke themselves to death, drink themselves to death, or don’t take care of their health. Some people overeat, or eat a lot of the wrong things, (like foodsContinue reading “Caring for yourself.”

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Fatal

When your child is diagnosed with a fatal condition at the age of 3, your life is changed irrevocably. Hearing they will lose the ability to walk, feed themselves, and be independent is hard enough, but putting a limit on the number of years you will be together is catastrophic. The neurologist tried to putContinue reading “Fatal”

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Broken

There is no question that I inherited some mental illness from the gene pool that determined my being. Working with it has been one of the biggest challenges of my life, and continues to be. Since before I was born a message was embedded in my consciousness that something about me was “broken”, fragmented, not whole.Continue reading “Broken”

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Why I love Taylor Swift

You have to be hard-hearted, or not have one, to not like/love Taylor Swift, even if you don’t like country music. I started this post BEFORE I knew she was taking a young man with leukemia to the ACM awards (rather than his prom because of her schedule). I started this post after listening toContinue reading “Why I love Taylor Swift”

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Perceptions

I spent a lot of Tuesday feeling guilty about being pampered by my sister on Monday. What a waste of time. Yes, some bad things happened while I wasn’t home, but good things happened too. That Tuesday, after many phone calls, and keeping my disabled son home from school sick, I finally got some goodContinue reading “Perceptions”