Dear Readers, It is with sadness that we share the news of Cai ending her remarkable life on January 2, 2023. She had planned her death for her 72nd birthday, January 15, but ALS had other ideas. Like so much of her life up to this point, Cai...
Wrapping Up A Life
A good writer friend calls me a “completionist” because I insist on finishing a piece of writing even when I know it isn’t any good, whereas she is able to abandon work as soon as she senses it stinks. She is right about me; I can’t bring myself...
Objects
Every day I circle through the ground floor of our house with my walker. My exercise tour! Beginning in the bedroom, where the “cockpit” (aka the bed) is the center of my activity these days, I advance in my ground-gripping slippers, careful step...
Flesh to Soul
My husband and I have developed a new ritual. After I brush my teeth, I sit on my walker in the bathroom, and he brushes my hair. I close my eyes as he strokes and pats and fluffs. I would happily sit there all day under his gentle ministrations...
Speaking Up, Being Big
About twenty years ago I got divorced from a man I’d been married to for over twenty years. As divorces go, it was a relatively smooth one, but it was still one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life: to say aloud that I didn’t think our...
One Life
In the last couple of years, since my ALS diagnosis, I’ve lived two parallel lives. One was the life I’d always been living as a writer in which I devoted my mornings—and often beyond—to writing, followed by taking care of business, running...
Every Day is a Trip
Many of you know that I did a second guided mushroom trip last week, seeking a deeper encounter with death, and wanting to learn how to release my attachment to all I love about life. A tall order to ask of a measly mushroom. I used a different...
Week #5 of “A Brief Pause”
This week’s post is written by Nancy Hopps. I will return next week to tell you about my second mushroom trip I took yesterday, wearing these ruby slippers! Death Can Be “Just Fine” by Nancy Hopps I’ve always had a profound...
Alone Together/Together Alone (Week #4 of “A Brief Pause”)
A month ago, I declared I was taking a brief break from writing this blog, but clearly I don’t seem to be capable of taking a real break! I write now in the midst of a racket overhead from the hammers of the roofers who arrived today, Election...
A Fork in the Road (Week #3 of “A Brief Pause”)
A few weeks ago I realized I needed to simplify my life to maintain focus on finishing my novel-in-progress. That is when I put this blog into what I’ve called “A Brief Pause,” so I would stop writing about matters of life and death and focus on...