ESSENTIAL BLOG POSTS FOR ME TO READ

[Click on blog title to read more than the excerpts.]

Freed Om
"I had been hanging on and clinging to so much lately (worry, fear, anxiety, monkey mind), and this was like a smack in the forehead. — Hey Lope! Letting it go means freeing your spirit/god/universe/om and getting out of the way. It means connecting with something bigger than yourself and trusting in that instead of being closed off from it. Letting every outcome be what it is and trusting that it fits into a bigger picture that we are too close to see."


The Wind Is Blowing
"...with each of these choices I create my life. No one else does this. And I have been thinking about all these things lately… my choices. Sometimes we say one thing is important, and yet we do another. So is that really important to us? Or is it trumped by our actions?

Maybe it’s like steering a ship… you have to keep readjusting the sails to keep on course. And sometimes you have to put down the anchor and get the map back out to check your coordinates."


Personal Essay: Just Let it Roll
"I like to avoid stress. That is, I intentionally avoid adding stress, in addition to the everyday stresses I cannot avoid. For example, I can't avoid pain, no matter which way I dodge. I can't avoid the necessity of working or office politics. I can't avoid all family obligations and relationship strains, in fact, living with someone like me can't be easy."


The Gift of Receiving: Vulnerability Can Open to You to the Boundless Generosity of Others
"Several years ago, when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both hips, I read everything I could find about coping with chronic illness. I was amazed at how often I'd stumble on a paragraph that advised patients to "look for the gift in your pain." Pain is a gift? Where's my return policy?

Pain is a gift? Thanks, but no thanks, I'd mutter to myself. I had just turned 44 and hadn't planned on slowing down so soon. I still had miles to go with my journalism career..."


Top 10 Study Tips and Suggestions For Those Living With A Chronic Illness
"Coming from a lover of all learning and a future teacher, school and all of the studying it encompasses means everything to me. A true perfectionist, I wanted to prove that my chronic illnesses would not keep me from succeeding in something that was so intrinsically personal to me..."


Lupus and Social Security Disability Benefits
"I think probably the most common mis-conception about SSD is that your disability claim will be determined by your medical records and what your own physician has stated in your medical records. This is NOT how it works! You need to know that right up front. The SSD Administration has their own staff which makes the determination on each claim, and these people are not physicians! They are administrative employees whose job is to determine that you are not disabled by their definitions. It is therefore imperative that you educate yourself on the inner workings of this system prior to making your application..."