In 2000 and 2001, doctors from the Mayo Clinic and Stanford Medical Center told me I suffered from permanent nerve damage and would never recover. Their advice to me: Stop pushing yourself and accept that you’ll never live the life you want. Despite this, a voice buried deeply within me urged me not to give [...]
My footfalls on the drab linoleum echo against the institutional, cream-colored walls. Don’t let me be too late. I pause outside the darkened room to compose myself. Family sit in chairs huddled around the hospital bed. My eyes haven’t adjusted so I can’t see her, but I hear labored breathing. Ruby’s still alive. I’ve never [...]
As I walked the hills behind my house this past Christmas Eve, I noticed a clump of new-green grass cracking the soil where it broke through. Not more than ½ inch high, but nonetheless, I stopped and marveled. You see, just a few days before, the temperature plummeted to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, hardly the weather [...]
