Sometimes, the brain doesn’t accurately analyze reality. Take this scenario:     When this happens for clinical reasons, it’s called “lack o...

  Me:   “Swallow this.”    Patient:   “Are the Stars playing today?”   (coughs and splutters) Me:   “One thing at a time.   Swallow.” ...

 Is there someone you’re trying to avoid?  An acquaintance in the community, a neighbor, a coworker, a friend?  Someone whose political opin...

Each year, I ask the Lord to give me a word to bless the new year.  (Yeah, I'm cheezey like that.)  I was reflecting and meditating with...

I’m trying to figure out a good metaphor for our abilities.  Working in a rehab hospital reminds me daily that abilities are neither static ...

Name-calling and shame-labeling are popular today.  From major media to comedians to kids on the playground, insults are tossed back and for...

(Letting go of our to-do lists and living in the moment in 2020) I’m a huge fan of plans and to-do lists.  I love seeing everything I have t...

I frequently tell this parable to my patients.  And honestly, I think I could stand to listen to it myself: Bob was driving to work when h...

The Muses are taking over the website!  Melete, muse of practice, Aoide, muse of song, and Mneme, muse of memory have been inspiring me in b...

As a speech therapist, I am sometimes tempted to focus only on improving my patients’ deficits.   After all, isn’t that what rehabilitation ...

I am sickened by the recent deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and now Rayshard Brooks—and all similar unnecessary dea...

Whenever I wipe poop off a bottom (or a toilet, or a wall), I make a mental note to say something extra positive to our nurses and sanitatio...

It seems like Pascha (Easter) has come too soon. Near-empty churches are decked in white; we sing that God has trampled death.  But the deat...

I often set expectations for myself and fail to meet them: ~I want to wake up earlier.   But I continue to go to bed late.    ~I w...

I have seen in the movies and read in books that true love is about finding joy in each other, about holding hands and giving roses and wr...

Many patients are surprised that my cognitive therapy sessions don’t involve logic puzzles or crosswords.  With me, cognitive therapy look...

Some days, I just don’t like myself.   From the outside in, I notice plenty of flaws.   I have acne, my hair is a wild mess, my posture i...

I sat with my cousin on the floor in the corner of the bookstore, poring over Elvish grammar and the rich world of Tolkien’s languages.  A...

Society has attempted to answer this question in a variety of ways, defining a person’s worth by wealth, social class, language, skin colo...

Sometimes I do too much for too long.  Constantly taking on more and more tasks, I pretend to be a Type A overachiever who has her life toge...