Stop the planet, I want to get off! Well, not really – I’m kind of enjoying myself at the moment, even though I feel like I’m caught in a vortex and would appreciate having a bit of time to come up for air…

My sister is visiting and we’re having a lovely time catching up on our lives and spending quality time with Mumsie, who’s absolutely thrilled to have her two daughters with her. Of course, when we gang up on her to try and get her not to do something she shouldn’t, she’s somewhat less thrilled! (more…)

During a recent trip visiting my family, I had the opportunity to observe an interesting juxtaposition between the mind of my 92-year old father(a former educator), who is losing many of his mental capacities, and my nine-year old nephew (diagnosed with autism and delayed development), who is succeeding in his efforts to gain mental capacities. Throughout my life I have appreciated the vast diversity of minds. During my medical school training, I chose a psychiatric elective in a locked ward where I would be in a room with 20 people debilitated by various psychoses. Many were a danger to themselves and others. None were capable of interacting safely in society. They were all hearing voices of various deities and devils giving them information and instructions. Some spoke “in tongues” that were not comprehensible to me, although they all seemed to be in full communication with each other. I realized that I was in the minority, the only one not hearing the voices or understanding the language. Most of these people had either a deficiency or excess of specific chemical neurotransmitters that created their “state of mind”. Just a few drops of one of these chemicals determinded the fine line between normal and abnormal. (more…)

She said it herself, but it bears repeating: Felicia Marie Tomasko’s workshop, Ingest, Digest, Rest – Ayurvedic Tips for Healthy Digestion was perfectly timed for the evening of the last day of the conference. After five days of constant wisdom ingesting, I think we all needed to hear about how to take time and let things settle. And Felicia, being a yoga and Ayurveda expert, had tons of helpful advice about how we can take simple steps to aid our digestion, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. (more…)

In the era of pads, pods, berries and droids, the radio has become obsolete, except for a few of us troglodytes. The other day I had my radio on as background for the soundtrack of my life and I realized it was not on my station. Someone had moved the dial. As I was tuning back to my station I started thinking about the clarity of the first signal, the static and noise as I shifted, and finally the new signal. I knew I was back on my station once I heard Queen singing “Radio Ga Ga”. (more…)

In the future, medical science may eliminate the need for surgery. However, we happen to exist in the present and surgery is still a very important treatment modality for various human conditions. My guess is that many of you will have one or more surgical procedures in your lifetime.

Surgery is a team effort. The surgical team does its part in preparing through education and training. But how are you preparing? (more…)

I’m a Libra, so it’s all about balance for me…except that these days it’s more like IMbalance!

We have visitors staying with us again – seven in all this time. My sister and her family left a couple of weeks ago and we had just a few days’ break before Hubby’s cousins came. And while they are wonderful and easy going people, there’s still a lot to do and there are times when I’m not sure which “cap” I’m wearing (chauffeur, tourist guide, chef, etc). I also have to take Mumsie into account to make sure she’s not overdoing it or encouraging me to overdo it. As I think I’ve mentioned before, she’s from the old school of hosting, so she thinks it’s only natural for me to add “personal slave” to my already full repertoire. Bless her – she tries her best to help but, at 92, there’s not much fetching and carrying she can do. (more…)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love having my family here. We all get along really well and it’s wonderful to watch Mumsie literally basking in the glow of being surrounded by her whole family.

But life is busy and chaotic with a houseful of people. Our days are filled with “what shall we do today?” or “let’s meet up with xxx” or “let’s go to the mall (or the park or wherever).” Then there are our conversations – we’re a family of chatterers and we ALL like to debate endlessly and share our opinions ad nauseam. Fortunately, Hubby is not only able to take all this in his stride, but he can also match us without any trouble. (more…)

After 30 years in Emergency Medicine and many years as a Medical Guide, it has become apparent that, as a species, we’re much better at getting injured than at healing. Every day, fascination and frustration enter my consciousness while observing people in various stages of dissatisfactory recovery. For example, I treated a young healthy adult who jogged 15 miles each day as part of his training regimen for the police force. He came to me because of severe headaches. After an extensive diagnostic work-up eliminating the very serious causes of headaches, I determined that it might be the running. Of course, anyone who jogs knows and loves that “endorphin high.” He didn’t want to stop jogging but agreed to do so for a month. His headaches disappeared. He was so happy – and yet he started jogging again. The headaches returned. (more…)

Looking up at the steep hill, I saw the “dead end” sign. Well, I wondered, why should I work that hard to walk up a hill only to turn around and walk back down again?

Normally, I would not have wasted the effort. Today was different.

Given that I had just dropped my daughter off for a three-hour gymnastics practice and I had to wait for it to be finished before taking the hour’s drive home, there was time to kill. So I turned in the direction of the hill. (more…)

It’s been quite a journey these past three months. I still cannot believe what we were able to accomplish in such a short time.

First we had the Virtual World Yoga Conference in February. Then last Thursday we held the Encore Event, which was only for a day. (more…)