Conversations rising from a lifetime trekking the ever-changing world of veterinary medicine
Our relationship with death takes on shapes and forms over our lifetime. When we’re little kids just taking it all in around us, we watch how the adults in our lives express themselves after a loss occurs. We watch, listen and feel it all. Sponges soaking every bit up. It’s so slick you don’t even …
I thrive in the season of Easter. I can smell it coming in March but I sometimes get whiffs in February. It’s that familiar scent of damp earth. It’s a time when spring fairies come out and breathe the clean in my laundry whipping on the clothesline. The Spring line air smells different than the …
I was doing a task at home the other morning I’ve done more times than I can count, my fingers knowing their job well. Moving in synchrony, intertwining while unwrapping the IV line, they couldn’t be distracted. And, in spite of years of physical work creating large joints, they worked nimble and capable as my …
The day after Death comes to take a loved one away is marked like no other day on the calendar. This day after Death has visited brings a slow-motion rhythm of heavy-laden legs, heavy feet shuffling, heavy eyelids. Sit for a while, wander for a while. Have more water. Distract and repeat. That time before …
One day, back in the mid-seventies, I was bit by a rabid cat. When I got to work that morning, my boss happened to be on the phone. So, I went to the back to see if anything had come in overnight. In the middle cage, in a room little bigger than a closet, was …
It’s Christmas, Dad. In four days, it’ll be two years since you left us. Mom left two days shy of five months before you. You felt you had no business still being here. You were clear on that. It is most certain you willed yourself to leave. It is possible for a human to die …
“I have a good memory, it’s just a short”. Daddy wasn’t the first one I heard say that, but he was the funniest when he said it. I think he was right about memory, though. We can only hang on to so much data. Here she goes again I have some fleeting memories of Christmas …
Horse trainers today are kind of different than the ones I knew many years ago. It’s good that we know more now than we did back then about moving in harmony with a horse. As a new veterinary technician/nurse working in mixed animal practices, I got to know quite a few trainers – mostly men. …
My Nonny was an interesting woman. When I was younger, I couldn’t see how any of her DNA could have been in me. First of all, she was a beautiful seamstress. That says a lot right there. But what I think, is it might just take a while for those cells to start to percolate …
In those days we were a bit asymmetrical. And, we wore our no commitment, free love on the outside. A messy eclectic sense of identity, I loved to shop the thrift stores for lovely old rayon dresses, the kind that old ladies wore. But sometimes I couldn’t remember not to throw them in the washer …