Last Wednesday night marked the beginning of Passover, when we always host the first seder for our extended family. Al’s first cousins always host the second seder. This is a family tradition that dates back to Al’s mother and her youngest sister, who alternated hosting the two festive meals every year, when we join Jews […]

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On Sunday, Al and I went to one of our favorite places, Block Island, an hour’s ferry ride off the Rhode Island coast. We used to vacation there when our daughters were young. Unlike just about anywhere else I can think of, the island remains a time capsule. Many of the same weathered buildings line […]

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I am way over the top with too much stress in the world. I suspect you are, too. So last Friday, I was very glad to attend a meeting at a beautiful Massachusetts Audubon sanctuary. This was a gathering of people who are working on ways to mitigate climate change and engage our communities in […]

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I’m back home since last Tuesday night, back on East Coast time, and nearly caught up on sleep, after an intensive 12-day journey with Al to Germany. As is my way, I packed a lot into our itinerary, based in part on more research for Novel 2, which is set in Weimar Germany, and in […]

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I really could use a break, right about now. It’s gorgeous outside, a medley of pink and white blossoms, chartreuse young leaves, sunny forsythias, bright red tulips, dainty violets. But I can’t go outside for my walks to revel in spring’s beauty because I’m having one monster allergic reaction to all the associated pollen. I […]

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The election is over. It is not the result I had hoped for. For now, I am just trying to keep my head on straight and focus on what’s in front of me. And so, I took a walk Sunday afternoon, in the sharp, unflinching November light that reveals each detail of bark and lichen […]

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As we head into next week’s election, I’m reminding myself to breathe. Just breathe. And the way to breathe matters. A couple of years ago, I discovered an important lesson: If you breathe from your chest when you are stressed, it triggers your fight-or-flight response, an adrenaline rush, and fuels anxiety. If you breathe from […]

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I am writing on Monday afternoon, October 7, the dark one-year anniversary of the terror attack by Hamas in Israel that launched what now seems like a never-ending war. Twelve-hundred people, mostly Israelis, were slaughtered that day and hundreds taken hostage. There remain 101 hostages in captivity in Gaza, tens of thousands of innocents in […]

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The post The More Things Change appeared first on Living with Scleroderma.

A few weeks ago, I had a series of pulmonary function tests—a routine, annual procedure, just tracking my lungs’ status. I’ve been doing these tests at a local hospital for decades, now, so I continue to do the procedure there to keep a comprehensive record. Only one problem: the hospital’s electronic medical records do not […]

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