When I called her name, the woman stood up quickly and bounced toward me; a big smile filled her face. She remarked that the waiting room conversation was getting “a bit deep,” and the wink she gave me told me she wasn’t talking about ‘intellectually’ deep. She told her story:

Back in early February, she went to the doctor for the pain in her lower back; putting off the visit was no longer an option. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, with a large tumor on L5. Her treatment was to begin immediately and with very aggressive chemotherapy.

She was devastated, and being a nurse, she knew that Stage 4 foretold the battle she was facing for her life. She went into work the next day and talked to her supervisors who then recommended that she resign, effective immediately. In emotional shock, she didn’t think before signing the document they quickly prepared for her.

The first chemo treatment caused her hair to fall out immediately. Her husband found her baldness unattractive and he left without ever looking back.

Now alone, she faced debilitating chemotherapy while now responsible for the total care of her severely autistic, blind, cerebral palsied, going deaf 11 year old son. “He is the light of my life,” she said as tears streamed down her face.

“Nothing comes easy for me. Everything has to be a battle,” she said, “and that’s the way it’ll always be.”

Her cancer is now in remission, and her hair has grown back. Though her aged mother helps when she can, she is faced with even more challenges.  She has to earn good money so that she can afford her son’s care. Her other choice is to not work at all and try to exist on $600 a month, the amount of his disability checks which discontinue when she works.

Rumor has it that all hospitals are under a hiring freeze. Though they desperately need nurses, none will be hired until the current health care overhaul debate is settled. She has had no luck finding work.

“Yep, everything is an uphill battle for me. It always was, and it always will be.”

Even through her openly flowing tears, her smile was there to shine with the love of her son. Their miracle: Life.

For this woman, life is worth fighting for. Every day.

The other day at work, I called this old man from the waiting room. When that room is full, there’s no telling who will stand up to answer my call.

I recognized this old man right away, I had seen him before, and turned to head back to my desk, keeping up my usual jibber-jabber to set a welcoming tone.

I was a bit more rushed than usual, so I set a quick pace, leaving the old man to saunter after me. Half way there, I glanced back to see just how far I left him in my dust and waited for him to catch up to me.

“Hmm, nice!” he says to me with a glint – a perverted glint, I might add – in his eye as he caught up to me.

I whipped right around to face him full, got my finger up in his face and forcefully said, “Watch yourself.”

The office went silent and all heads turned my way. The old man took two steps back, a startled, surprised look on his face.

A conversation earlier today touched on the topic of September 11, 2001. Did I remember? Oh, yes. Vividly. A strange silence hung over the country, waiting, watching, horrified and mind-blown. Part of that silence was due to the grounded planes, marking just how much they contribute to the sounds of the life we take for granted.

How many parts of the world experience events like 9/11 as a matter of course?

Whether attributable to the attack on US ground or the change of the millennium, one life ended. And, like all endings, another life began.

But, nobody noticed. The world remained, we were all still breathing, so no one noticed just how different “things” really were.

.

Standing at the top of a staircase looking down is a disconnected experience. Out of view is the first few steps necessary before reaching the bottom, the solid ground. Disoriented, a hand or two might grasp for something, anything to steady the mind’s eye. What is forgotten in the moment is the sensations traveling the length of the body from the feet; the pressure on the soles from the body’s weight. One end doesn’t know what the other end is doing.

(Yeah, I know. But this isn’t Politics 101.)

Taking this photo was a challenge for me. In order for me to orient my brain enough to feel solidly grounded, I planted my feet wide and took more than a few deep breaths before I could raise my camera up to take the shot. Yes, this is exactly what I saw at that moment in time, and looking at the photo now still threatens to disorient my sense of balance.

  

Daily horoscopes are just like any other prophesy or prediction. Once spoken, you are duly warned. The hope is that you listen enough to ward off the prediction. Of course, there’s this thing called “self-fulfilling prophesy” where a person is so anxious and fearful beforehand that the dreaded thing happens just because the person set it up so well to happen.

My horoscope today caught me blindsided, it’s so close-to-home:

…put some distance between you and whoever or whatever has been making you feel so blue lately. Come on. You've seen way too much of your living room lately. Your dog is even trying to figure out how to get you out of the house. Go ahead; have some fun. You've put in your time.

I don’t think I’m really all that “blue,” but I do tend to stay home when I’m home. It’s the part about my dog that hit my funny bone. Well, “dogs” in my case. I truly wish I could train them to understand it when I say, “it’s a day off tomorrow, we can sleep in.”