Those of us who suffer chronic pain face a great deal of stigma. This paper addresses that stigma. Pain, objectivity and history: understanding pain stigma
How Chronic Pain Leads to Anxiety and Depression
Neuronal plasticity in chronic pain-induced anxiety revealed Hokkaido University researchers have shown how chronic pain leads to maladaptive anxiety in mice, with implications for treatment of chronic pain-related psychiatric disorders in humans. Chronic pain is persistent and inescapable, and can…
Poem: In Several Colors
In Several Colors by Jane Kenyon From Collected Poems Every morning, cup of coffee in hand, I look out at the mountain. Ordinarily, it’s blue, but today it’s the color of an eggplant. And the sky turns from gray to pale apricot as…
Poem: Myth Dispelled
Myth Dispelled –Adam Possner, M.D. The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu, I tell him. It’s dead virus, there’s nothing alive about it. It can’t make you sick. That’s a myth. But if we bury it in the grassy knoll of your shoulder, an…
2021 Stitch-a-Long Update
I continue to work on the 2021 Peppermint Purple SAL. I just finished the block for week 29. It’s good to have a second piece to work on while waiting for the blocks of the 2022 SAL!
Poem: For the Bird Singing before Dawn
For the Bird Singing before Dawn –Kim Stafford Some people presume to be hopeful when there is no evidence for hope, to be happy when there is no cause. Let me say now, I’m with them. In deep darkness on a cold twig in…
Poem: Love and Life
Love and Life by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester All my past life is mine no more; The flying hours are gone, Like transitory dreams given o’er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. The time that is to come is not; How can…
Poem: the earth is a living thing
the earth is a living thing –Lucille Clifton From Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton is a black shambling bear ruffling its wild back and tossing mountains into the sea is a black hawk circling the burying ground circling the bones picked clean and discarded…
Unvaccinated People Increase Risk for Vaccinated People
I can’t say that I’m surprised. Remaining unvaccinated increases risk to the vaccinated, says U of T COVID study People who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 not only place themselves at greater risk of getting infected by the virus, but also increase…
Poem: I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth
I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth –Fatimah Asghar so I count my hopes: the bumblebees are making a comeback, one snug tight in a purple flower I passed to get…