Hard Decision

Lately I’ve been dealing with a lot of ambivalent feelings surrounding the cochlear implant.  My latest hearing test results were real bad.  I’ve suddenly lost all my speech discrimination, which wasn’t a huge surprise.  I can’t hear at work.  Lip-reading isn’t helping much, and I’m basically having a very, very hard time even though I [...]

PhotoHunt: Garbage

PhotoHunt
This weeks photo hunt topic is ‘garbage’  I usually edit garbage out of my pics, so had a real hard time finding anything with garbage in it.  Luckily my husband isn’t so picky about editing.   This was taken after the Seattle Seahawks won a big game in 2006.  If you look closely especially down at [...]

Photo Hunt: Flags

This is a picture of a historical fishery in Oyterville, WA, taken in 2005.  Oyterville was once a thriving town on the southwestern tip of Washington state in the mid-1800s.   Later this area became noted for its cranberry production.  Today it has a population of 48.  The fishery is still in operation, and sells an [...]

PHOTOHUNT: CREAMY

So this is my first time playing photohunt, and I have to admit it was hard finding just the right creamy object!  This was the creamy soap that awaited us on a creamy towel folded into a swan at our hotel in Mexico last November.  They also folded the toilet paper into little fans.  Maybe [...]

Mindfulness Practice For Acquired Deafness and a Bonus Haiku

Rainy Day Coffee
Originally uploaded by *lemonade*
 
 

Deb Ann  wrote a beautiful Haiku to demonstrate her positive feelings about being Deaf. This is hard for almost any hearing person or former hearing person to understand. But I think I get it.
 
Recently at a Buddhist workshop we did a meditation exercise in which we were told to “feel [...]

Another set of Commandments

Brno Torah
Originally uploaded by Mamluke

Inspired by Anonymous and MM, I decided to draw up my own set of “rules” for both Deaf and Hearing people when communicating with deaf people.
Thou shall not ask if hearing aids or cochlear implants are turned on, or if batteries are dead.
Thou shall not ever utter the words, “Never mind” or [...]

Booking Through Thursday

I haven’t done a meme in such a long time, and this sounded fun.
Here are the instructions–
“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”
These aren’t in order of [...]

What is Holism?

“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.” ~ Buddha.
When we talk of ‘holism’ and ‘the sum of its parts’ are we speaking of the individual or of a group or of a thing [...]

Parking lot danger.

Parking lot danger.

Originally uploaded by paulswansen

It happened again. This morning I nearly got hit in the parking lot as a librarian pulled in to park. I never saw her. Or HEARD her. Normally I pay more attention in parking lots, but this morning I was in a hurry. I had [...]

Goodbye Kathy

You loved kitties, coloring books, the cooking channel and spaghetti.  You taught me to slow down, to appreciate small kindnesses, that loving others was more important than being right.  You were uncomplicated and honest.  Your short life was full of challenges, but you bore disappointment with the bravest courage.  You passed out candy instead of becoming [...]