Infertility Survivors Finally Heard
Permission is a tricky thing. We frequently readily provide it to others but deny it to ourselves. That’s often because allowing ourselves freely to engage in activities such as sitting with our emotions can seem self-indulgent. But, in reality, it can be self-affirming. Reader Writes About Permission Denied It’s always gratifying to hear from new…
Women I could easily connect with or who effortlessly ‘got me’ and my complicated childless, ‘non-mom’ experience once felt elusive. That’s because during my 30s and well into my early 40s I learned some hard truths. You could say I was akin to an older Janis Ian. Modifying a few of her classic lyrics a…
Updated 1/2/2023: Covid 19’s impact on asthmatics is, in a word, awful. I’m now five weeks (and on day 38 of recovery ) into a variety of medications and devices. All are aimed to fight back and rid my lungs and sinuses of significant inflammation and congestion. Follow-on illnesses since contracting COVID over Thanksgiving? They…
Jennifer Aniston grabbed headlines again this week. This time the news focus wasn’t solely on her newest streaming series, the launch of a new product or a new film. It was Jennifer’s admission that she’d endured failed IVF and the “shitty” aftermath. I’m not gonna lie. I’m glad Jennifer Aniston has come clean here in…
Now more than ever, I’d like to focus on renewal. It feels overdue after three tumultuous years. In what feels like another lifetime, November 2019, I happily dove into a glass half-full. I looked ahead, joyfully, to a new decade. New academic and writing successes blossomed one after another. Travel plans fired my imagination. My…
Serenity amid tumult isn’t easy to find. Nature’s beauty reminds us to pause and breathe. This is one of a few peaceful scenes I captured on ‘sanity walks’ in Michigan last month. Grateful now to be home. Slowly unwinding … embracing the calm while it lasts.
Greetings from the 95+ plus degree Detroit area heat. It’s day 25 of 32 in my parallel universe. I arrived on the eve of Memorial Day in the Detroit area 26 years ago to the day after I packed my bags to pursue a new life out west. My original plan to enjoy June 2022…
Late April, early May brings a certain incessant MD marketing madness. Serenity now, right? Curious to know your frame of mind as we approach the second Sunday in May this year. It could range from fragile to numbingly indifferent to WTF awful. All or none of the above or anything in between. There is no…
Bronchitis has left the room. Good riddance one month of debilitating exhaustion. Three weeks of high-dose prednisone (a shrew-making steroid if there ever was one) plus regular rescue inhaler. Ten days of antibiotics. Twice-daily plus corticosteroid inhaler and nasal spray. Deep, glorious breaths. Life is good. So great to be back to something resembling normal….
Tribalism at its best provides a haven and kinship. Who doesn’t like to feel accepted and validated? Tribalism at its worst, however, fuels misunderstandings, culture wars, and, at the extreme, ugliness. Most of us have witnessed or encountered all of the above. My latest tribal experience stemmed from my participation in Slate‘s podcast, What I…