The powerful lesson she taught me — When I was growing up, my Mom was fat. She hadn’t always been a large person. In her youth, she’d won trophies in the discus throw, long jump, badminton, and table tennis. In black and white photos I saw her slim and smiling, with shining dark braids, dressed in beautiful…

No Wonder They’re so Confident, I thought — French women. The phrase connotes images of sophistication, savoir faire and understated beauty. They don’t wear tons of makeup or baubles. They smoke and eat fatty cheese. They talk in husky voices like Edith Piaf. Whatever they do, they are sexy. Those are all stereotypes, of course. I’ve been to…

Debating what is selfish in my situation — About three weeks ago I collapsed; turns out I had a brain tumor. They did surgery, removed the tumor and now I’m recovering. The tumor was a stage IV brain cancer. It has metastasized. Since mobility is an issue, a friend is looking after my German Shepherd Snowy. I miss…

Abraham Lincoln’s youngest son had a kind heart — It wasn’t until President Truman that turkey growers started to regularly donate birds to the White House for Thanksgiving, and it wasn’t until modern times, starting with Reagan, that every year they were routinely pardoned. …

It keeps me alive — May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit — Romans 15:13 I was diagnosed with metastatic brain, liver, and lung cancer in April of 2021. I was…

A sober reflection, not a gay celebration — Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving here in the United States. This is a national holiday, and has been since Abraham Lincoln. …

Thanks to drug/supplement interactions — I have been a cancer survivor now for almost 20 years. It will be 20 years in January. I was originally diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer. At the time, I was in my 30s and the survival rates for that type of cancer were grim. 85% of patients died before…

But allopathic medicine is also necessary — Recently I was spiking a low grade fever. Before cancer treatment, I probably would have ignored it aside from taking a few supplements — echinacea tea, zinc tablets, and extra vitamin C, both in powdered form and in actual foods such as lemon water with honey and oranges or grapefruit…

It’s nice to serve her breakfast for a change — This morning I was feeling better so I got up early and made breakfast. Because I have cancer, this is not always possible. In fact, a lot of times I will ask Mom to make me an omelet because I feel too tired and weak to do so and I…