September 8, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Live well, love well, be well: Bidding my dear readers farewell When I started this column nearly seven years ago, I thought I had a couple years of material in me at best. It’d be a fun experience writing twice a month, getting some thoughts out there into the world and hopefully helping some people in the process. It certainly has…
May 23, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes The positive power of the creative life I don’t know why I find it so impossible to sit still. I feel like every moment I’m not engaged in some creative pursuit, I’m somehow missing out. Or worse, I’m squandering what poet Mary Oliver calls my “one wild and precious life.” Multiple sclerosis (MS) has done…
May 9, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes A different perspective can help us make the most of delays, setbacks As hard as it is to believe, another school year is drawing to a close. It still somehow takes me by surprise every time. It feels like just yesterday that I was buying new shoes and helping my eldest navigate the halls of high school for the first time, and…
April 25, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Hardships and the good life: Why our mental approach to MS matters I don’t really like problems. And I don’t think I’m alone in this. No one I know wakes up hoping a seemingly insurmountable obstacle or painful trial is flung smack in the middle of their path. If it were up to me, I’d rather wake up to perfect hair, hit…
April 11, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Go ahead, you’ve earned it: The benefits of MS self-care Well, dear reader, my time in Florida is coming to an end. Mom is home from the hospital after her surgery and a stint in rehab. She has begun outpatient physical therapy, and slowly but surely, she’s getting back to a new kind of normal. My being here is…
March 21, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes There’s so much to gain: Finding the upside to being ‘broken’ with MS I have a friend who’s truly blessed. Aside from the typical struggles that come with being an adult, he has few problems. Seriously. Neither he nor a loved one has had any major medical issues. No one in his immediate family has passed away yet, and while he’s not rolling…
March 7, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Kindness matters because you never know what others are going through I’ve always liked the quote, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” Some folks think it was penned by the Scottish author Ian Maclaren (sometimes MacLaren). Others attribute the quote to actor Robin Williams (which is fitting, I think, given the…
February 21, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Thankful for caregivers: What MS has taught me about support It’s been a couple weeks since my last column, and things with my mother have proven more challenging than we expected. She’s had another minor procedure to stop fluid from building up in her chest, but she is progressing with her rehab and continues to gain strength. Hopefully, we’ll…
February 7, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Marching onward: What MS has taught me and trained me to bear Well, dear readers, I took a bit of time off from writing this column, but not by choice. January was an incredibly hectic 31 days, and I spent most of them living with my parents in Florida. Why? Well, because my mother has been dealing with some health issues…
January 10, 2023 Columns by Jamie Hughes Time Is (and Isn’t) on Your Side: How MS Helps Us Know What Matters One of my favorite episodes of “I Love Lucy” is the one where Lucy and Ethel get up to some hijinks (and don’t they always?) in a candy factory. You know the one. At first, the bonbons come down the belt slowly, each one easy to wrap. But…
December 27, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes I Am What I Am: Embracing the Highs and Lows of MS If there’s one thing those of us who have multiple sclerosis (MS) know all too well, it’s that life requires balance. Fellow columnists and I have written about the need to find a happy medium when it comes to mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
December 6, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes ‘What’s the Worst That Can Happen?’: On Facing Fears With MS Well, dear readers, I finally did it. The recital I’ve been telling you about finally took place after several long delays and a good bit of scrambling, and all those singing lessons were finally put on display for a public audience. I’d like to tell you I stepped…
November 22, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Sweeter Than Honey: Finding the Balance That Works for You I’m a fairly neat and tidy person, but you wouldn’t have thought that if you’d looked in my kitchen over the last few weeks. Bottles of oils, jars full of melted wax, bags of butters and soaps, and boxes were scattered everywhere. My husband is a beekeeper, and…
November 8, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Switching to an Oral MS Medication Is a Hard Pill to Swallow In one of my favorite scenes of the 1970s movie “The Goodbye Girl,” Paula McFadden (played by Marsha Mason) begs Elliot Garfield (played by Richard Dreyfuss) to quit playing the guitar late at night when he can’t sleep. “Have you ever tried pills?” she asks, to which he…
October 11, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Better Than Fiction: What Living With MS Has Taught Me About My Own Story A voracious reader since childhood, I’ve often lost myself inside fictional worlds — often preferring them to the real one where I’m forced to live. This was especially true when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) almost 18 years ago. When my eyes and ears were focused on…
October 4, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes When the Words Just Aren’t There: The Challenge of Talking About MS There’s a poignant scene in “Forrest Gump” in which the title character and his best friend, Jenny, walk up to the shack where she was raised (and was raped and abused by her drunken father). She stares at the place for a moment and then begins hurling things…
September 20, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes May I Help You?: Why Accepting Assistance Is Always the Wisest Choice My eldest son just started high school, which makes me feel both incredibly old and somewhat proud of myself for surviving this long. People have been telling me the teenage years are the hardest, but I have a leg up since I used to be a high school teacher. The…
September 6, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes What a Novel Idea: The Many Benefits of Predictability When I was a kid, I adored novelty. I always wanted something different to experience, a new place to go. In my mind, there was nothing worse than doing the same thing week in and week out. However, I’ve come to appreciate routines as an adult, especially because…
August 23, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes It’s OK Not to Be OK: What to Do When You Feel Stuck in a Rut For the last few months, I’ve been mired in something I can only describe as a funk. My job, my family, my faith, my entire life — no matter what aspect we’re talking about, I felt like I was stuck. I mean like soul-in-a-straitjacket stuck. Honestly, I hadn’t felt anything…
August 5, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Discovering What It Takes to Survive in These Troubled Times Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are somehow lucky enough to live on your own desert island, you’ve probably noticed that things are kinda difficult these days. I mean, COVID-19 is still a thing, and now we have monkeypox to deal with. Everyone seems to be…
July 22, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Step Up to the Mic: The Value in Doing the Things That Terrify You Back in November, I told you all about my decision to start taking vocal lessons with a coach. Well, I’ve been at it for about eight months or so, taking an hour-long lesson every other week, and while I can tell that I’ve made some progress, I’m still not…
July 8, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Getting in Gear: Essential Equipment for an Excellent Beach Vacation The last few months have been a bit stressful, to say the least, and with the thousand and one worries and distractions I was facing, I couldn’t help but think of the opening lines of a William Wordsworth poem: “The world is too much with us; late and…
June 17, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes Just Because It’s Broken Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t Beautiful I recently did a little research to write an article reflecting on a photograph of the Library of Celsus. This marvelous piece of architecture was commissioned by a Roman consul named Gaius Julius Aquila as a funerary monument for his father. It was once home to…
June 3, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes How I’m Making the Most of My Limited Energy as Someone With MS The last few years have been rough for a whole host of reasons, and I think it’s safe to say that most of us in the United States feel utterly lost and burnt out. There’s no shortage of things to be stressed about and afraid of. I feel like…
May 20, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes When MS Takes From Me, I Try to Give Back in Service to Others Last weekend was a busy one. On Friday, I had to drop my eldest son at school at 5:30 a.m. for a field trip and then pick him up at 11 p.m. A nap wasn’t in the cards, I’m sad to say, and at some point in the evening, I…
May 6, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes We Have to Make the Effort to Care Living with multiple sclerosis (MS) is hard. I know this is hardly a revelation, especially to those of us who struggle with it on the daily, but I felt like it needed to be said. I was scanning through articles on this site recently, seeing what my fellow…
April 22, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes An Interview With Writer Edith Forbes: Living With MS Last year, I got the chance to read and review Edith Forbes’ medical memoir, “Tracking a Shadow.” I thought it was an encouraging and thoughtful work, so I contacted her by email for an interview to share her thoughts with readers of this column. Forbes graduated from Stanford…
April 8, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay,’ and That’s OK In the South, we have a tendency to cram words together to create a single gigantic one, a kind of linguistic Pangea, if you will. The one I’ve been using a lot lately is “usetacould,” a condensed form of the phrases “I used to be able to” and “I once…
March 18, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes There’s No Such Thing as Perfect We are a three-cat household because, well, felines are awesome. They’re entertaining and sweet. They love to give cuddles. And they’re fairly self-sufficient — no baths or walks necessary. Just keep food and water in ample supply, and they’re good to go. The only problem? Litter boxes. We have this…
March 4, 2022 Columns by Jamie Hughes More Than 50 Shades of Gray Spring is rapidly approaching. It’s warming up outside. The trees are starting to bloom. And inside our home, I am once again plotting to refresh the place. Out with old decorations, and in with the new! Declutter that closet! Donate the table and chairs that still look great because you…