Hiking – a mindful, focused, present-oriented, small step activity.  I must be and do all of these as I put one foot in front of the other along the unpredictable terrain.  Especially on a steep ascent or steeply declining descent where I step with intention so my feet grip the earth, the mental concentration is intense.   I must remind myself to stop and look up at the surrounding beauty or I miss half the reason for hiking in this most breathtaking nature that has been presented to us.

When my mind is able to relax a bit and wander away from the immediacy of each step, I think about all the metaphors there is here for life itself.

• Small steps gets us where we’re going.  The persistent steps are what make the big difference.  They take us to great places.
• The fragility and unpredictability of life is out there with each step.  There could be a loose rock underfoot, a falling rock seemingly out of nowhere, a snow bridge that appears thick and sturdy and upon stepping cracks under our feet.  We all know life’s challenges oftentimes appear out of left field and they can hit hard. 
• Stop to look up and see all that’s around us.  A wonderful excerpt from one of my favorite children’s book, The Phantom Tollbooth, portrays this beautifully:

                “… as you know, the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.   Then one day someone discovered that if you walked as fast as possible and looked at nothing but your shoes you would arrive at your destination much more quickly.  Soon everyone was doing it.  They all rushed down the avenues and hurried along the boulevards seeing nothing of the wonders and beauties of their city as they went.”             

                “…No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. …

Today’s posting is my guest post for the Tiny Buddha inspirational blog.  I am very happy to share this piece with you.  It is a theme that has been with me for years.  We often write about what we struggle with.  Here is my angst with the Why question and how I’ve come to terms with it.

“We all have problems.  The way we solve them is what makes us different.”  Unknown

I used to be a “why” person.  Why you ask?  Because after receiving my {middle} daughter’s diagnosis of a neurological condition, I got really hooked into the “why me” mode, and it just ate away at every fiber of my core.

I obsessed over “why”.  Why did it happen?  I needed to make sense out of a senseless fluke of nature.

Click here to continue reading this post over at Tiny Buddha.

It’s great to go away on vacation and it’s nice to return home with wonderful experiences soon to become memories.  So I’m back  after a two week hiatus rejuvenated from some gorgeous hiking in the Swiss Alps.  Nature is a wonderful get-a-way; it clears away the staleness inside and out.   

Thanks for stopping by and do go over to the wonderful Tiny Buddha site.  Lori Deschene continues to impact a tremendous number of people with her inspirational daily writing.…

My interview with Meredith Vieira on living with chronic illness {in the family} made me think back to my family’s time when we lived through my daughter, Nava’s, chronic condition of ulcerative colitis.  Until it get managed well with the proper medicines, it was obviously difficult and emotionally painful to watch a loved one (in this case an 11 year old child) writhe in pain, wake up in the middle of the night crying out on blood-streaked sheets and lose a lot of weight. 

During the acute stage of her illness, there was no escaping the fact that life revolved around sickness.  It was only when it began to finally get under control with steroids and then maintained with colitis medication that I could strive towards regaining some semblance of normalcy in our home.  I did not want illness to define Nava nor our family’s life.  Yes, it was a component of her and our life but it wasn’t the entirety.  I wanted to make life bigger and broader than the colitis. 

It became relatively easy to do once the acuteness of the disease went into quiet mode with a fairly small regimen of daily pills, for which Navi became completely responsible.   For six years the illness kept a low profile; Nava was fine and healthy.  And then all hell broke loose when a major flare-up that couldn’t be controlled set off a medical crisis (which I’ve written much about). 

Fast forward – Nava is ‘cured’ of ulcerative colitis as she had her colon removed and has a permanent ostomy.   She has her life back, her health back and lives well.  She handles her ostomy herself without a peep of complaint. 

So how do you live with a chronic condition? 

• As Ms. Vieira stated, with openness and honesty.    I used to talk to my girls all the time about how scary it was for Navi and for all of us; about how unfair it seemed that she had disabilities and then had to have a medical condition on top of that.  

…

I am so excited to put out this month’s interview with Meredith Vieira.   As most of you know Ms. Vieira is a journalist and TV personality.   She was the original talk show host of The View and co-hosted the Today show, the NBC early morning news program.   She currently hosts the TV game show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, as well as being a frequent contributor to other news shows.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Vieira at a book event at the JCC in Manhattan where she interviewed  her friend/author of a new book.   At the reception afterwards, she graciously accepted my request for a blog interview.   Speaking to her on the phone was like talking to a good old friend.

The issue I focused on with Ms. Vieira is one that is unfortunately all too prevalent – that of chronic illness;  and more specifically its impact upon the family.  Richard Cohen, Ms. Vieira’s husband, has been living with multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years.  Mr. Cohen is a TV producer and writer.  He writes a most reflective and insightful column on chronic illness for AARP Magazine.  He has also written two books. (referred to later on)

It becomes a ‘family affair’ to live and cope with the daily struggles and difficulties of a chronic and debilitating condition.  The challenge here is to live as best as one can, with it and despite it; and Ms. Vieira and Mr. Cohen do it well together.

I hope you get lots of take-aways from this most down-to-earth interview.   I am appreciative of Ms. Vieira’s openness and authenticity as she brings us into her family’s life, providing insight and inspiration on coping and living with chronic illness.

1. What personal qualities have helped you carry on and move in a positive direction?

For me what has helped is for Richard to be open about his illness. For a very long time he was closed. …