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Learning to Write Again
Yesterday, I spent my afternoon painting two old adirondack chairs that we found on a curb in Cape May while on vacation. Frustrated with my writing, I hauled my grouchy self to Home Depot with a hoard of feisty gardeners and purchased outdoor furniture paint, some gorilla glue, and a whole bunch of sandpaper. For…
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On The Other Side of Oral Surgery
Last night, I broke down crying over a slice of bread because it had seeds in it. Man, was I excited to try that bread, it was supposed to be a victory lap after three-and-a-half days of very successful healing. But I’m not supposed to eat seeds yet, and this bread turned out, had seeds.…
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The Camino List!
I woke up this morning with a new sense of hope. It is the first time I’ve slept soundly through the night since last weekend, and I’m sure it was partially due to the fact that I was finally able to eat somewhat normally yesterday. I’m still unable to get back to hiking training, but…
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A Time Capsule of Anger
I try to avoid negativity and anger on my blog. After all, it’s published online for all to see, possibly forever. But to be truthful and straightforward–and to recognize the physically and spiritually difficult trip I am leaving for in two weeks–I will respect the crappy feelings as well as the good ones. So if…
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“But that doesn’t make it okay…”
Just before leaving the house this morning, I flipped open a book by Pema Chodron that I’ve been slowly reading. I specify slowly because it’s a breakdown of an eighth-century text called The Way of the Bodhisattva by the Buddhist sage Shantideva, and most of it takes some time to process. I usually have to be in…
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When a Community Loses the Biggest Energy in the Room
When I was a junior in high school, my English teacher asked us to describe the first time we processed the idea of death. As was the case with most of my high school papers, I came up with a much better description of this childhood moment years after writing the paper; still, the assignment has…
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Day 30! Thank you!!!!!
Hi All!! Even though we’re on our last(ish) day of the fundraiser (I may do an extra something for tomorrow), donations are still coming in!!!! Thank you so much to Fangzhou Zhang for donating to my fundraiser! Fangzhou is a very sweet and super-inspiring teacher here at MKA. I am so lucky to have her as…
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Day 26 Fundraiser: It Continues!
Even though we’ve reach our goal, the generosity keeps coming! The wonderful thing about this whole project is that Crowdrise doesn’t cut you off by a certain date or amount, so we can just keep going and see how far we get! As for two awesome people who pushed me over the $1k mark… Tom…
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WE DID IT!! FUNDRAISER GOAL REACHED!!
You are all amazing people!! As of today, we have gone BEYOND the goal to raise $900 for Zara Aina. And the best part? There’s still a whole week to see how far we can get. I am so blown away by this experience, I had no expectations of reaching the total, especially before the…
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Day 24: We’re at 99%!!!
So I don’t normally post this early about the fundraiser, but guys, we are $8 away from the goal!!!! With a week to go!!! And here’s the great thing about this fundraiser, there’s no reason we have to stop at $900. If you need to re-inspire yourself this Thursday morning (especially after the anxiety-causing disaster…