Category: Stories and Anecdotes
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Your Brain Is Making Stuff Up and Committing To It With Confidence If you’ve ever waved back at someone who absolutely was not waving at you…Or confidently grabbed the “sugar” that turned out to be salt…Or had a full half-second of “oh good, there’s a person there” before realizing it’s a coat on a chair……
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These days many of us are aware of “Influencers” on social media, these folks have made a name (and money) for themselves on the internet by working at selling themselves. I have come to understand that there are other influencers in the world who have been around long before the internet, life influencers. I have…
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After my cataract surgery, we chose to operate on only one eye because I’m at high risk for retinal detachment. The replacement lens has fixed magnification. Intellectually, I understood that newly changed vision would affect my depth perception. I anticipated it in theory. In daily life, however, anticipation and embodiment are two very different things.…
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Click Plunk plunk Squeak squeak squeak Clump clump clump clump I’m re-learning the world around me, one sound at a time. I didn’t realize how much my hearing had declined over the years until my new prescription hearing aids re-awakened my wonder at the forgotten nuances of sound. The click of the electric baseboard heater…
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More than twenty-five years of parenting and caregiving for two medically fragile daughters stripped away any illusion of certainty. Plans became provisional. Assumptions dissolved. What emerged in their place was a kind of adaptable resilience, paired with an absurdist, sometimes irreverent sense of humor shaped in part by laughter and gratitude. Those practices helped me…
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How a Go-Bag Can Reduce the Overwhelming Unknown that is The Emergency Room and Hospital A “go bag” doesn’t have to be complicated, and there isn’t just one right version. Some people keep one for evacuations, power outages, or travel. Here, I’m talking specifically about a hospital or emergency room go bag — something you…
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Energy and Vision Changes I had been blind for about a year when I had the opportunity to talk with an adjustment to sight loss counselor, who is blind herself. I will never forget how impactful one of the first things she told me was; “it takes a lot more energy to do everything when you’re…