A-Musings

(I intended to post this earlier but got caught up in theory and science, quantum physics and metaphysics, which will appear in a following blog.) Jeez Louise, maybe the world is cracking apart … Haiti, Chile, Baja California, another catastrophic almost 7.0 earthquake, this time in China, killing thousands. Not to mention the more minor rumblings in less populated areas which fail to make the headlines … Oceans away, volcanic eruptions in Iceland melt glaciers and blanket the skies with black ash, interrupting flights to and from Europe for days, maybe weeks, or, if the past is prologue, even longer (the last eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull, in 1820, lasted nearly 2 years!) … Business and vacation travelers stuck in airports scrambling to get a flight, a train, a hotel room, a cot; diplomats and politicians stuck as well, unable to attend summits and meetings, even state funerals; Europe-bound shipments of farm fresh food stuck in Africa, rotting in its packaging, potentially roi...

What a relief. Mom’s surgery went swimmingly. Many thanks to Dr. Lauren Cassell and the crackerjack team of medical professionals at Lenox Hill Ambulatory for providing such comprehensive and compassionate care. And thanks to everyone who sent good vibrations our way – surely Tessie has been embraced in grace … Since the “procedure” (the medical euphemism for “surgery without an overnight hospital stay,” Tessie’s stoicism has spun into relief, even optimism. Dr. Cassell deigned her nodes “tiny” which usually indicates that things are a-okay. The pathology report later confirmed that yes, the c-word was indeed contained and does not appear to have spread. This made my mother eligible for the newer, shorter and supposedly side-effect free post-op therapy: a twice-daily, week-long local treatment that delivers the radiation/chemo directly to the site, rather than the general once-a-day, 6-week series. So far, she feels so good that she’s been commuting from/to home for th...

Ah, spring … longer days, sweet sunlight … March / April showers, showers, and more showers … delicate flowers escaping their cold and dark prison, their colorful little heads poking through the still rock-solid earth … Young lovers canoodling on park benches … Passover inside of the Christian Holy Week, with all the Easters – RC, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant - landing on the same Sunday … a time of rebirth, renewal, of life reawakening … Yeah, whatever - - because while the world is supposed to be expanding, blooming and bursting in celebration, this week my world feels mighty shaky. As if it’s folding in, hunkering down, preparing for winter. (Did I somehow switch hemispheres?) You see, on Good Friday, my mother will have surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her left breast. Tessie lost the right one to the same disease over 30 years ago, and has been cancer free ever since. So this delayed reoccurrence is most distressing. Very upsetting to see one’s mother...