A Life Lived Together In our youth, we tend to see the future as a blank slate. We feel full of energy and possibility. Each day brings a new opportunity. Each plan seems attainable. We have no idea what challenges lie ahead, but that uncertainty only adds to the allure. We simply believe. And then…
Read moreCategory: Compassionate Voices Articles and Blog
Compassionatevoices Articles and Blog
When Hope Won During Cancer
At 5:40 one morning, I woke before the alarm and lay still, listening to the refrigerator hum. An MRI waited for me that afternoon. Fear had already filled in the result, the next phone call, and every hard thing that might follow. But hope during cancer is not always a bright feeling. Sometimes it is…
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Not Writing from the Opposite Shore
This essay isn’t being written from a beachside towel line or from the opposite bank, where someone hands you a towel and asks how it felt. I’m writing this while I’m still in the middle of crossing, my arms tired, the current pulling at me, unable to see which direction will take me to land….
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The New Normal Isn’t Normal
First, someone said it to me, and I nodded. It was a friend, a good friend, who had just learned of the diagnosis. He told me the words softly, as if he were setting something fragile down. “This is your new normal.” I heard those words again from a support group leader a few weeks…
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How do you handle bad news when you expected good news?
How do you handle bad news when you expected good news? It can be difficult to cope with news like this. You may mentally prepare for one outcome, only to receive unexpected information that forces you to adjust your expectations. That experience can leave you disoriented. These suggestions aren’t formulas to follow. They are methods…
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