I found this in one of my many small notebooks, dated 12/21/01, and thought I would share it here: 

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We're looking for a cure for things that have no words

 Many therapy-averse people I have met explain their disdain for therapy in thi… Read full post »

I've not disappeared, but for the past months, I've been intensely writing poems.   I've written (and read) poetry all my life, but something new is happening with the work. Which makes me utterly grateful. 

I have kept an eye on the blogs here though. 

 If you're interested, and… Read full post »

Life is short, no need to commit suicide. 

Spending always rises to meet income. 

You can’t clean anything without making something else dirty. 

You can do anything you want to do. However, you can’t do everything you want to do. 

A small full life is more satisfyi… Read full post »

 I've been thinking for some time now about getting rid of stuff. Mostly just thinking about it. I disposed of quite a lot of furniture, books, and sundry duplicate items when I sold my home in Pennsylvania and moved to Seattle. But I carried a truckload--literally--o… Read full post »

People do change, although we don't change because others want us to, and we can't force others to change even when we think it would be good for them or because we wish they would. Even I can change. Do change. We change when it makes sense, when we… Read full post »

1.      Oversleep. No meow wakeup calls.

2.      Turn off the lights, heat, fans, and radio when you leave the house.

3.      Make last minute plans to go away for the weekend.

4.   &n… Read full post »

 This is a rant. It's not politically correct. It's just a rant. I want my percocet! I'd certainly settle for vicodin, which doesn't even require a written prescription, it can be called into the pharmacy. I moved to Seattle two years ago with about 30 percocet left from a prescription… Read full post »

 Harvey Pekar died early this morning. 

Harvey Pekar was just a guy who thought that everyone--even a schlub like him--has an interesting life, worthy of d… Read full post »

I think my cat is dying. She is 18 years old and has been healthy all of these years. It's the saddest thing imaginable, and ridiculous, she is dying because of fleas. 

Jezebel was given to me to car… Read full post »

 My father loved to spend money,

to buy late-model Chevrolets, tell off-color jokes,

As a young man he inhaled asbestos
in the shipyards, went to war, returned,
ran a corner grocery. He was a c… Read full post »

I have never made a practice of watching a movie twice or reading the same book of fiction for a second time. What that says about me, I have no idea. Perhaps it reflects that to this point in my life, the riches of narrative seemed so enormous I didn't want… Read full post »

I thought some might be interested to know what we have learned in Washington State during the first year with our new law. The Washington State Death with Dignity Act was passed by voter initiative on November 4, 2008 and became law on March 5, 2009. In the language of the Act,… Read full post »

Like many folks with recurring episodes of fairly severe depression, I rely on antidepressants to hold me aloft.  I've been through quite a few of them, starting with Prozac in 1990. Taking Prozac made it impossible for me to pee comfortably, causing intense bladder spasms, so much so that I har… Read full post »

In response to a recent post, Kellylark left me this question: "I do wonder though, with as much as you know about death, what do YOU believe happens to the individual, after death, if anything?"

I want to thank Kellylark for asking. And giving me an opportunity to think carefully about… Read full post »

Reposted from my blog on blogspot. 

Having lost my job doing palliative care, I have lost a great deal more. Perhaps more than I want to admit to myself. And in the interim since that loss and today, I have turned over another decade, I am now 60 years old. There are… Read full post »

In his post Fortune Telling with your art, Algis Kemezy made the generous offer to interpret a simple drawing, based on using 4 basic shapes. I couldn't resist, so I sent in the following drawing, per his specifications. I did it on the Paint program on my computer, so it's a bit rough… Read full post »

... when you’re too lazy to do what you should be doing, most of which involve sitting at the computer: 

• Go to friends of friends on Facebook and look through their list of friends (still searching for the ex-girlfriend?)
  
  
• Go to Craigslist and check out rentals in cities you only/
… Read full post »

 

"There is nothing that love cannot achieve, and there is nothing that love cannot sacrifice." 

 … Read full post »

I have taken a part time job with Planned Parenthood to get me through a bout of unemployment. It's a long and winding road away from what I really want to be doing (end-of-life-care), maybe the extreme opposite. But I did women's health care a long, long time ago, and I… Read full post »

Yesterday, I was trying to remember what event brought me to palliative care. I can identify so many moments when death and dying have saturated my life. Over nearly 40 years of working in health care, I have always chosen employment in setting of huge, often life-and-death intensity—abo… Read full post »

Well I didn't get the hospice job, this is the 3rd job I didn't get since I lost my last job in November. I don't know what it means either about me and my prospects for working again in my chosen field or about the job market. I wonder if my… Read full post »