Yesterday people posted upside-down flags, the DJ on the radio talked about what color you could wear to show your dissent, and people got shot at a 4th of July parade. Disturbing! And not because there were shootings on the 4th of July; Americans shoot Americans daily. So that part’s not surprising (sadly). But the… Continue reading I Believe In One Nation Under God, Do You?
Sometimes life piles it on so thick you wonder how you’re still standing. At times like that, I need to remember to sit down, put the top down, and enjoy the colorful ride instead. It’s been so hard. I even missed my blog the week before last, and I was about to miss it again… Continue reading Joyriding Through Cancer & A Kaleidoscope First Year
We can’t go through life unscathed. Inevitably, we’ll be both patient and caregiver, or maybe both at the same time. Yet, it comes as such a big surprise. As if we weren’t expecting a health scare to disrupt our otherwise perfect lives. So maybe we should be asking ourselves, instead: which side are you on… Continue reading The Gift Exchange Somewhere Between Life & Death
Calling all you caregivers–be part of our creative team (the Ortiz treble makers) and help us write a song that matters. We work alone most of the time, Skylar and Alexandra don’t need me to write a song and publish it on their YouTube channel, and I stick to what I do best: writing my… Continue reading Mean Well–This Song’s For You (By You, Too)
At last, there’s a method to my madness! I finally figured out what I’ve been doing throughout my chemo journey; besides accumulating so many hats, beanies and caps, I didn’t have enough places to wear them all. There’s nothing like hindsight to realize I wrote to take the fear out of cancer and gladly played… Continue reading It’s A Chemo Wrap: Toss Up!
Sometimes life is hard, and when you’re excited, it’s going to get easy; it gets worse. Just like that. So Dad sends me a video of a girl who has a 2% chance of surviving cancer. She wrote a song, “It’s Okay,” and performed it on ‘America’s Got Talent.’ If the song wasn’t emotional enough,… Continue reading Can “I Believe” Too?
Mom always loved the rain. As a kid, her Dad would open the garage, and the two of them would sit and watch it rain. She did the same thing as an adult (well, not in the garage). Sometimes she’d even go outside and walk around the driveway and pick weeds. So she had a… Continue reading United Forever
I dreamt up Skylar long before we first met her sixteen years ago. Just a kid myself, I’d turn to the sky and wish upon a star. Starlight star bright first star I see tonight, I wish I may; I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight–to be a singer someday. And as… Continue reading Sky’s Sweet 16 Wishes That Already Came True
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