December 18, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Reclaiming Our Power When We Feel Powerless I don’t know about you all, but when I first learned I had multiple sclerosis, I felt utterly powerless. Weak. Beaten down. Cornered. Cowed. Yes, I experienced all of these negative feelings (and a hundred more besides) in the first year or two after my diagnosis. But after time, I…
December 4, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Both Now and Someday “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be…
November 20, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes On Being Truly Thankful Well, friends, we are coming to the end of 2020. Thanksgiving is next week, and believe it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. And while I can’t say I’m grateful for all the challenges this very weird and wacky year has presented me with, I remain so for…
November 6, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes 5 Ways to Let Go of the Stress Well, folks, we made it to the end of a very long political season and an even longer week. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel a bit relieved. In fact, I have tension and stress trapped in every muscle and joint of my body. And that’s not…
October 23, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes On Theme and Variations A few weeks back, I listened to a segment on NPR’s “Here & Now” featuring superstar pianist Lang Lang and his latest recording project. I’m still thinking about it. He decided to tackle Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterwork, “Goldberg Variations.” No mean feat, seeing as how there are 30 variations…
October 16, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Peace, My Heart, Peace Despite the melatonin and Kava tea, the hot baths and weighted blanket, I’m not sleeping very well these days. I haven’t been for months actually. In addition to the “low-burn” stresses that come with adulthood and the utterly average cares of the workaday world, I have felt a…
October 2, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Balance Is Relative Multiple sclerosis has taught me many lessons over the last 16 years, and one of the most lasting ones has been about finding balance. I can’t run like a madwoman from one task to the next and not expect consequences. There has to be a balance between work and rest.
September 18, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Who We Are and What We Do We’re now moving into the sixth month of quarantine, and it’s looking more and more like the world isn’t going to snap back to the way it was before all of this craziness started. I’m starting to think that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because some of the stuff going…
September 4, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Finding Soul Food in a Butterfly’s Visit I don’t know about you, but these last few months have been rough. Like, I-want-to-crawl-under-my-weighted-blanket-with-a-hot-water-bottle-clutched-to-my-midsection-and-listen-to-Chopin’s-“Nocturnes”-on-an-endless-loop rough. Life’s just like that sometimes, especially when you have multiple sclerosis. Ever since the pandemic started, things have only gotten more challenging. Now, we have the added stress of illness, working from home (if…
August 21, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes What’s Haiku With You? I don’t know about you, but most mornings my brain feels like it’s full of hyperactive gerbils. This could be my multiple sclerosis, or it could be pandemic brain fog. Either way, I understand that song by The Police in a brand new (and very real) way these…
August 7, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Being Freed by Who I Am Every few days, I go out to our Little Free Library and change the messages on the two side walls, which are covered in chalkboard paint. One of my missives reads: “My ‘summer body’ plans didn’t work out, but I’m killing my reading list. Take that, 2020!” And it’s…
July 17, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes What Will We Do? I recently started writer David Sedaris’ MasterClass, and one piece of advice he keeps reiterating is the importance of keeping a diary, a daily record of your doings and dealings in this world. It’s a habit I’ve fallen out of, so I bought a stack of Moleskine cahier journals…
June 19, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Beach, Please! My family just returned from a lovely week-long vacation on the Gulf of Mexico. It’s always a wonderful time (and one perfectly suited to socially isolating) because we literally do nothing. We make no plans. We buy no tickets to any event or theme park. We sleep, read, and watch…
June 5, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes When Roses Change, Color Me Surprised Right now, it’s tempting to feel hopeless. COVID-19 is still out there with no vaccine in sight. Millions of people are out of work. And regardless of how you feel about the protests taking place in all 50 U.S. states (and around the world), all of us can admit…
May 22, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Eugene Peterson and Lessons About Intentional Living The last few months have been interesting for obvious reasons. All of our routines have been toppled over like a stack of blocks, things that were once mundane now feel alien, and getting back to “normal” (whatever that looks like) still feels as far away as the horizon. But I…
May 8, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes How to Release Fear I just turned 42, and though I am wiser and stronger and more independent than I was a few decades ago, not everything is coming up roses. Some days, I feel weak and helpless. Other days, I’m overwhelmed. And that’s just part and parcel of life for every human being…
April 17, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Ralph and the Cherry on Top of Life I have a new personal hero. His name is Ralph Wendorf. We probably don’t have much in common. He’s not even an MS patient! I’ve never met him, and I likely never will. He lives across the country from me, in New Mexico, but thanks to a local broadcast that…
April 3, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes How to Make Working from Home Work for You I just finished my third week of working from home due to the coronavirus, and I’ve learned a few things about what it takes to be successful outside of the office. Here are a few helpful tips for MS patients who currently spend more than a few hours behind a…
March 20, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Divide and Conquer: Bravery in the Face of the Coronavirus I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but there’s this coronavirus thing going around. And it is disrupting everything from concerts and conferences to schools and my kids’ recreation sports leagues. Don’t get me wrong, as a person who lives with multiple sclerosis (MS) and is therefore immunocompromised,…
March 6, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes I Must Confess that I Love Needles As someone with 16 years of MS experience, I’ve grown to hate needles. I only have to give myself three shots a week now instead of seven, but I dread shot days as if they were the proverbial plague. Needles are awkward and uncomfortable. They make travel more difficult. Sometimes…
February 21, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Thinking Outside the Box There’s a story I love to tell about my dad, a retail warrior with more than 30 years of experience under his belt. And it’s one that I think is apropos for those of us dealing with multiple sclerosis. Back in the 1980s when he was a department manager…
February 7, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Give It a Rest, Will Ya? Jan. 1, 2020 was a special day in our house, and not just because a new decade came into being. (Or did it?) It marked our 20th wedding anniversary, and my husband and I chose to celebrate in style this year by taking a cruise together. (Yes, if you’re…
January 10, 2020 Columns by Jamie Hughes Keep It Real: What’s in Your Window Display? I read a sad tweet last night (though, in a way, aren’t all of them somewhat sad?) in which a woman told a story about her friend who had just broken up with her boyfriend of one year. She asked her friend how she was holding up. The reply was…
December 20, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes This Magic Potion Made the ‘Throat Thing’ Disappear After I wrote my last column about essential oils to combat the common cold, I knew I was doomed to catch something. And that’s what happened … kinda. A few days ago, I felt what my family calls “a throat thing” coming on, but thankfully, my friend Sandy hooked…
December 6, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes Cold? What Cold?! As an MS patient, I’m always on the lookout for something that will help me stay healthy. Though doctors say flu shots are OK for us, they’re not for me. I’ve had better luck with essential oils. Though they can’t replace all medicines, adding them to my…
November 22, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes Making (and Appreciating) Space As an MS patient (and an insatiable polymath), I’m always on the lookout for new information. Recently, I learned about an interesting concept in Japanese culture called “Ma,” and ever since, I’ve been trying to work out how I can incorporate more of it into…
November 8, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes Simple Signs with Messages of Hope Resonate with Me I’m not a superstitious person always on the lookout for signs and omens. I don’t read the wrappers on Dove chocolates or seek life advice from the paper slips inside fortune cookies. I consult my horoscope but merely for the entertainment value. However, the last few months have been rough,…
October 25, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes Mystery Keeps Me Pushing Forward: I Wonder What I’ll Do Next If there’s one thing the internet is good for, it’s inspirational quotes. They’re usually paired with a picture of a woman at the beach, her arms open to the sunrise, walking through a field of flowers, or raising her eyes to a sky full of stars. Or kittens. Kittens are…
October 11, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes ‘The Land Is Better’: Embracing Highs and Lows I recently read “The Animal Family” by Randall Jarrell. It’s considered a children’s book, but like many stories written for kids, it has much to offer grown-up readers. The story is a simple one. A hunter is lonely. He has no one to share his life with and no…
September 27, 2019 Columns by Jamie Hughes Violence Can Ensue When We Don’t Rest One of the best things about my job is something called fact-checking. Before publishing an article, we go through all the stats, facts, quotes, and assertions, researching their validity. That’s how I came across a humdinger of a quote by Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who lived from 1915…