Susan Rich's Blog, page 85

A few thoughts on grieving - day one

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Hasn't there been enough pain? Now the Thanksgiving feast, the Christmas dinner, the Chinese multi-course sit down meal of grief really begins. This amount of crying should at least burn a hell of a lot of calories. Has anyone studied this? In other words: now the real loss begins.

2. Stay in bed as long as you need to. So what if it's a gorgeous summer day? Fuck the sunlight and the bright blue skies. Fuck the dental receptionist who rings up and wants ...

Only for Cat Lovers - All About Otis (Oct 1999 - August 2010)

I've just come home from four hours at the veterinarian's. Much of that time was spent trying to decide if this was Otis's "time." It's been three weeks since he was diagnosed with liver cancer, but probably three months since I first saw some out of the ordinary signs from him. One day when I came home from work he was in the exact same position on a slim window sill that I had left him 6 hours earlier. He'd lost some weight then, but then rallied and came back for a few months. At that time...

What I'm Reading - Lost in Wonder: Imagining Science and Other Wonders

Reading is one of the great pleasures of the moment. I am savoring the first half of Lost in Wonder by Colette Brooks. Colette read at Elliott Bay Book Company this summer and although I only occasionally read creative non-fiction - this is one of those happy occasions. Brooks made it clear that she's writing for the non scientist --- the English major (perhaps) that took "Botany for Poets" as an undergraduate. It's hard to explain this book as it is both a history of great scientific moments...

What I'm Reading - Lost in Wonde: Imagining Science and Other Wonders

Reading is one of the great pleasures of the moment. I am savoring the first half of Lost in Wonder by Colette Brooks. Colette read at Elliott Bay Book Company this summer and although I only occasionally read creative non-fiction - this is one of those happy occasions. Brooks made it clear that she's writing for the non scientist --- the English major (perhaps) that took "Botany for Poets" as an undergraduate. It's hard to explain this book as it is both a history of great scientific moments...

Local News @ Alki Arts - Artists in the Neighborhood Make Me Happy

I usually walk the beach each morning --- well that was the idea before Otis got sick. Tonight I caught the sunset --- all soft shades of pink and bright gold. The beauty pageant of clouds came straight from a children's book. Does this really happen each evening? Every time I take this walk I try to find something memorable --- last week it was a baby seal on the beach moving 20 ft over sand to reach the Sound. Tonight, my discovery was more urban.

A beautiful art gallery, Alki Arts, has open...

My Response: Mohamud at the Mosque

Maybe because I've been spending more time at the veterinarian's than listening to the news, but I don't understand in any way how a mosque, a place of peace, is anything other than healing. A number of years ago, when I worked in Palestine for Amnesty International --- a trip to teach human rights education to teachers and lawyers --- I left my hometown the same day a Christian man had entered two Planned Parenthood clinics (in Jewish neighborhoods) then shot and killed everyone in the waiti...

Thankful for Compassion, Creativity, and Drugs: Lien Animal Clinic

[image error] I am now in a daily relationship with my vet, Dr. Kraabel, at the Lien Animal Clinic. And while I wouldn't wish this experience of caring for a dying pet on anyone -- if you do have to do it --- these are the people who can accompany you on the journey. No, they can't cure liver cancer -- but they can offer all sorts of drugs --- and they can say when drugs are not the way to go. While chemo is possible in some cases -- and surgery in some cases, Dr. Kraabel was honest with me concerning...

Going - W.S. Merwin

Going

Only humans believe
there is a word for goodbye
we have one in every language
one of the first words we learn
it is made out of greeting
but they are going away
the raised hand waiving
the face the person the place
the animal the day
leaving the word behind
and what it was meant to say



from The Shadow of Sirius, Copper Canyon Press

Helpful Hints for Hard Times : What You Can Do

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I am getting tired of hearing myself freak out. Yes, my beloved Otis is in his last weeks / days, but nothing I do or say can change this. He's got more love than he knows what to do with and a thousand different food items to try and tempt him to eat again. Still, most of the time he's resting - not really asleep and I need something to do besides worry. Writing poetry is not an option for me at the moment. It's hard to keep still.
Here are some things I've learned that seem to help; if you a...

Poem for Monday - The Naturalist's Last Love Poem

I found this poem on Verse Daily today. It speaks to me so clearly. At the moment I am nursing a dying cat --- my best animal friend for 11 years. Only last week he was himself ~ and now by increments he is becoming less and less himself, sleeping for most of the day and no longer eating like a teenage boy. He retains an interest in squirrels and hummingbirds --- this is for Otis.



The Naturalist's Last Love Poem

Nothing on earth
can last forever.
It's become an art:
rain and the river
cut cliffs...