While on a recent Middle Eastern adventure, my nieces and I crossed from Israel into Jordan and rode through barren wilderness to Petra, a historical and archaeological city named among the “New 7 Wonders of the World.”
The Treasury (photo: Breanna Canclini)
There were no mishaps in the past two weeks of traveling through Israel, and crossing the border into Jordan and Egypt.
Photo credit: Camel driver’s young son
No mishaps landing in San Francisco, getting through customs, or driving north to Oregon. Until.
Until — just ten minutes from home — my tire blew.
For a second time, I’m reading When Breath Becomes Air by surgeon and author Paul Kalanithi. At age 36 and on a career path that was spiraling upward, Dr. Kalanithi was rudely interrupted. By a lung cancer diagnosis.
Photo credit: Freeaudiobookguide.com
Recently, the title of an online article, “16 Tips for Continuing Bonds with People We’ve Lost,” caught my eye. Maintaining bonds with the people who have died? Really? Doesn’t that sound a bit communing-with-the-dead-ish?
But then I read the article and was surprised to discover I had done several things on the list.
Photo: Pixabay
Did you know that giving and volunteering stimulate the reward center in the brain, releasing endorphins and creating what is known as helper’s high?
And like other highs, this one is also addictive.
Photo credit: Unsplash
I’m at a coffee shop—one of those fabulous local places where the high ceilings thrum with industrial pipes and funky lighting, and a large garage door is open to let in the mountain air—waiting for two of my creative team members.
Photo: Unsplash
Jim and Michelle are meeting me here to brainstorm over some needed changes to website, brand name, tagline, purpose. Who do I want to reach? What’s the best way to get there?
Which means, stay tuned for some exciting changes!
On a fine spring day this week, I had a hankering (what a great word, hankering … does anyone use that word anymore?) to trek back to the place where I scattered my husband’s ashes after he died of cancer, after he lived much longer than the original prognosis: Ten preposterous, brimming, courageous years with late stage disease.
Broken Top standing guard over a frozen Todd Lake
Do you think there’s a difference between being spontaneous and being impulsive?
Today is National Honesty Day, founded in the early 1990s by M. Hirsh Goldberg. Can I just be honest and whine for a minute?
Credit: Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes creator
A number of fellow travelers accompanied me through this week. And I’m pretty sure—based on the therapeutic sheer pleasure of hanging out with them—I’m much healthier than when the week began.
There was the cancer-kicking, wilderness-hiking posse at our season opener: Six gentle miles along the Metolius River.
Photo credit: Mike Gibson
Back when my husband, Gary, and I first heard those epic unbalancing words: “You have cancer,” my thoughts went to, What next? Where do we go from here?
Photo credit: Unsplash
Copyright © 2025 Marlys Johnson
