Category: depression

Are you telling yourself the truth?

Do you remember the old game show “To Tell the Truth”? My mother and I enjoyed watching that daytime show in the ’60s, but if you’re not familiar with it then or the later remakes, here’s the gist. Three people introduce themselves as the same person–a real individual  who has an incredible story to tell. …

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The Goodness of God and the “Badness” of Life

The other morning as I listened to CeCe Winans belt out the song “The Goodness of God,” I suddenly had flashbacks of “bad” things I’ve experienced in my nearly seven decades of living. A Mother’s Day miscarriage. A life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Untimely deaths of dear friends. Painful turmoil in churches. Addiction crises ending in suicides. …

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Are you a Titus? Or do you need one?

I remember so well the first cancer support group meeting I attended at our community  hospital. It was the summer of 1990. I was a 36-year-old reporter for a York, PA, newspaper and recently had interviewed Mary Flinner, the new group’s facilitator. When I showed up at a support group meeting a few weeks after my story …

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“Just let ’em fall like healing rain”

May I be honest and share two things?…First, this short post is mainly for me. And second, the song at the end is the best part of it. I’m writing for myself because unwelcome events have left a trail of sadness in my heart. Perhaps you can relate. I’m mourning two years of a brutal …

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What We All Really Need

He likes sweet. I like salty. He thrives on change. I seek routine. He favors the East Coast. I prefer the West. He is impulsive. I have to plan to be spontaneous. But we do agree on this: We’re still very much in love. Forty-eight years ago on this date we said “I do,” and …

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Who or What are You Missing Today?

  My Dad would have turned 96 today if he hadn’t passed away in 2011. I can still recall my last phone conversation with him after the hospice nurse called to say his time was short. We lived several hours away and even though we left as soon as we could, we did not get …

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Never Lose Hope

  If you’re like me and enjoy hearing stories about people who weren’t “supposed to be here,” please meet my friend, Nancy, a long-time survivor of incurable liver cancer. In 2005 Nancy was told she had a “very aggressive” liver cancer and there was nothing anyone could do for her. “If you have anything you …

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How to Stay Calm in Football Games…and in Life

  I’m a passionate football fan. I enjoy exciting, close games…unless the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Philadelphia Eagles are playing. Then I’m a nervous wreck and terribly worried until my team is ahead by at least three scores. Last week I’m watching the 4th quarter of the Philadelphia-N.Y. Giants game and the Eagles are down …

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Living with Loss: My Oncologist Has Cancer (Part 2)

  Cancer has a nasty habit of taking things away from people–things like hair and strength and jobs and time. Sometimes it takes them away for a short while and sometimes it takes them away permanently. Even before my oncologist Dr. Marc Hirsh got an official cancer diagnosis, the disease already was robbing him of …

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My Embarrassing Confession

  I have a confession to make. It’s kind of embarrassing and I’m reticent to admit it, but I want to be transparent so I’m going public. I leak. Seriously, I do. And I’m not talking about once in a blue moon or even occasionally. I’m talking basically everyday, especially for the last several months. …

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