by Kate | Dec 18, 2020 | Chronic healing, Disability, monsters
December creeps on, its short days contributing to my dark mood. Shadowed, I am sure, by the pandemic and lack of festivities that result. (It seems inappropriate to celebrate with 300,000 dead in this country alone.) I’m also recognizing the emotional whiplash I...
by Kate | Sep 16, 2020 | kind promises, monsters, Transformation
When I lived in North Carolina, a tree fell on my neighbor’s car. He was upset and hired some guys to cut down many of the tall pine trees on his property. I cowered in the house that day, cringing at the sound of the chainsaws and the toppling trees. It felt like...
by Kate | Aug 22, 2020 | kind promises, monsters, Transformation
My mind is my biggest playground. Since I am quadriplegic, there’s not much I can change about my body, how it works (or doesn’t), or what it does. My body slips like an otter into the pool of “things I cannot change.” I am left with mind and spirit as potential...
by Kate | Jul 24, 2019 | kind promises, monsters
I was 20 – an ambitious, hard-charging-perfectionist – when I was given a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. MS is a neurological disease whose symptoms may include fatigue, tingling, and paralysis. My initial response was to try to be “more perfect” in order to “beat” the...
by Kate | Jul 6, 2017 | chronic illness, monsters
It seems my entire adult life has been a process of befriending my mind. It began in an EA 12 step group in Winston-Salem North Carolina with the Just For Today’s. (It’s interesting that, in this brave new connected world, I could find them most easily on an EA...
by Kate | Sep 20, 2016 | Creativity, monsters
Sometimes, when things are changing, we tell ourselves that it is too overwhelming and we won’t be able to cope. That’s not very helpful self-talk, as anyone familiar with internal dialogue will tell you. It is difficult, though, to catch those thoughts before they...
