In the wake of COVID-19, some individuals who are diagnosed with “long COVID” are experiencing the reality of disability as they face symptoms that restrict their ability to move through life without limitations. President Joe Biden announced that many of…
Ethics at the end of life: The first ethical issue is not who decides but who accompanies
This is the second in a four-part series. Secular Western medical ethics tends to be principlist and procedural. Two crucial core principles in medical ethics are autonomy and informed consent. The affected persons (often shorthanded as “patients,” although we must…
The power of an encouraging word
One doesn’t typically reach my age without the onset of one or more health issues that must be confronted. So, in this 75th year of my life, I have had lower back surgery to help ease the pain in my hips…
Repressing my sexual orientation cost me my health — permanently
I can’t remember what it feels like to not be in pain. It’s been years since I’ve had the energy of a healthy person. The litany of physical symptoms that rage war in my body daily are a result of…
Why I wrote about hope in disarray
Three years ago, when I first started to write Hope in Disarray, the world was a very different place. It seems that the world back then was churning through time at rapid speed, unaware and untroubled by the destined forces…
My cancer journey: ‘May the peace of God swaddle your world’
In her poem “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac,” Mary Oliver observes that the fox and the snake move silently in the woods. And then she asks why we should be surprised that cancer could silently enter the forest of…
‘It is Well’: hope amid fear after facing the ‘C word’ 4 times
My life’s journey has taken me through cancer four times. On rare occasions, I was able to confront the repeated news of recurring cancer with a bit of confidence. Most of the time, I was forced to my knees by the demon of cancer and begged God for a miracle my dad never received.
The apple does not fall far from the tree: Women’s rights, my mother and me
La versión en español está disponible aquí. Last week my mother died unexpectedly. She was 86 years old, and had struggled with Alzheimer/dementia for the last 12 years. This sickness advances slowly and gradually, and little by little family and…
No longer in-valid
Invalid: “One who is incapacitated by illness or disability” In-valid: “Null; Not legally or factually valid” “Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids…