Welcome to This Roller Coaster Ride – Becoming Chronically Ill
An Analogue to Becoming Chronically Ill Hello reader, welcome to the Shadow’s Edge blog. Today I want to take you on a roller coaster ride, so please buckle your seatbelts. O yeah, I almost forgot - hats need to be left...
Finding Noah
Using Art to Discover My Purpose I, Noah, am 19 years old, a budding artist, and live in the city of Zurich. I have always been interested in art somehow. Whenever I saw a painting as a child it was like a friend, a creation from a completely different...
Helpful Ideas for Mental Health for the New Year
Ideas for how to start the New Year with helpful mental health activities
Not Setting New Year Resolutions for My Mental Health
FINALLY! 2020 is almost over! We can finally breathe a sigh of relief as we begin to put the past year behind us. But is anyone else feeling somewhat anxious about what 2021 might bring? Me too. I am having a hard time with feeling absolutely jaded about everything...
Across the Canyons of Uncertainty
Where do you begin when you discover that everything you thought was going to happen will not be happening after all? Plans are so last year and most of us are paralyzed by uncertainty. This year has served up changes daily and sometimes hourly. If it feels like you...
Cancer Doesn’t Care About Your Holiday Traditions
Cancer does not get the final word. We do. My family is pretty rooted in tradition. We always spend Christmas Eve at my great-aunt’s house in a tiny little town in northern Minnesota with anywhere from 40-60 people packed tightly into her home. My mom prepped the...
“Why Me?” Sounds Whiny But is Actually an Awesome Question
When something makes your life go BOOM, the natural question is, “Why me?” (For maximum effect, try shaking your fist at the sky.) This may seem like a whiny question because deep down we all know that life throws curveballs from time to time. But truly uncovering the...
Elevating Teen Voice Through Public Murals
When a colleague in philanthropy offered to introduce me to Robyne Walker Murphy, executive director of Groundswell, a community mural ‘art for change’ program based in Brooklyn, NY, I jumped at the chance. After interviewing Robyne, it was clear we shared a...
A Superhero for Today: EPILECTRA
She’s Powerful, Strong, and Fast AND Thoughtful, Kind, and Vulnerable … and She Has Epilepsy. How and Why Did She Come into Being? The patient seemed stunned. “How can you be here alone?” he asked me. “Aren’t you afraid?” I was volunteering in the neurology...
Embracing Special Needs, In Others and In Yourself
“Special”, isn’t that something everyone wants to be? Then why is it we are so scared of “special needs”? I am the oldest of a family of six children, two of whom we adopted and have Downs Syndrome. I am big sister to Ellen, in her roaring 30s, a ball of cheeky fire...