Maggie was my yoga teacher the summer I was sickest. Young and healthy, kind without being showy about it, she is a memorable character from that time of trying to hold together what was falling apart. I’d already stopped running because illness had made me too frail. The constant pain and pressure in my intestinesContinue reading >>
The latest dust-up in this distressing election cycle has been Donald Trump’s fat shaming of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. His comments and attitude are disgusting and demeaning: even if you argue that the “job” of a beauty queen is to stay beautiful, there is no evidence she has ever been anything but. TrumpContinue reading >>
Crohn’s is caused by all your stress, right? What do you eat that makes you so sick? Are you resting/eating right/doing yoga/overhauling your life? Because if you were you wouldn’t be sick. When you are first diagnosed with a chronic illness – or with any illness, really – you deal with a lot of questionsContinue reading >>
What follows is a version of the remarks I gave today on a Good Friday walk for high school students, reflecting on the Stations of the Cross. It’s really an honor to be with you today, and especially an honor to be here at this parish. I moved to this neighborhood about a year agoContinue reading >>
I hope I don’t die in the spring. I remember exactly where I was when I had that disconcerting thought. I was driving with the sunroof open through the busiest intersection of my urban neighborhood, looking up at a billboard while the sun glared behind it. The city workers had started putting barrels of flowersContinue reading >>
