I wasn’t sure I’d live this long. Maybe, if like me you have a difficult chronic illness such as diabetes or cancer, it’s easy to imagine an early end-of-life. But here I am, essentially quite healthy, living with both type 1 diabetes AND my third round of breast cancer. Go figure! In a few weeks, … Read more
Great to be back with you all again. I needed to take a bit of an unplanned break from eNews and blogging. The holiday season was harder on me emotionally than in previous years. I did lots of good therapy and introspection to heal the wounds that made themselves evident this holiday time. Turns out, … Read more
Feeling my emotions deeply is a new behavior for me. I’ve been doing that quite a bit the past few weeks. Turns out, doing this was a good setup for the Breast Cancer Rest & Renew Image Reborn Foundation retreat I attended November 8 – 10, 2024 in Park City, Utah. With this third breast … Read more
Last summer when a group of us were at my friend Jenny’s cabin in Wisconsin, our friend Anne invited us to come to her family cabin in Allenspark, Colorado for a week. The cabin can not be found anywhere on the internet, and the name of the two buildings on the property are Luther Lodge … Read more
TRIGGER WARNING: I’m going to talk about topics that some may find uncomfortable. Namely, I’m going to discuss female genital health. Buckle your seat belts, things are about to get personal. I already tend to be personal in these blog posts, and along those lines I’m going to address an issue that has come up … Read more
Right before the pandemic, I attended a writing workshop with Jeff Goins called Tribe. It was in Nashville, Tennessee. I didn’t know anyone attending, but I wanted to attend because I really wanted to finish my book and I was searching for support for how to make that happen. I connected with a few amazing … Read more
In the middle of the night recently, I had a dark night of the soul. I spent a bit of time contemplating the end of my life. What that would/could look like.It was very dark and very sad. Lots of angst and tears. Thankfully, at 3am, I shifted and asked myself, “Mari, you’re not dead … Read more
I was out walking this morning, as today is the New Moon in Capricorn, and as I approached the majestic Mississippi River, a powerful, graceful eagle soared on a wind gust feet in front of me. I made the instant decision to not pull out my phone to snap a photo and instead to breathe … Read more
I’m writing this post on American Thanksgiving 2023. To kick off the day I ran my tenth, as in every single year they’ve had the race, even during the pandemic when it was virtual, St Paul Turkey Trot. Today I ran the 10K. They have a 6K option too. I ran it with Jenny, Katie, … Read more
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I went in for a PET scan to see if the 5 nodules on my lungs, one of which had grown a little over the past year since they’ve been tracking it, were cancer. That PET scan was held on August 25th. I went in to meet with … Read more