My Fecal Transplant, Your Immune System, and Covid-19

August 20, 2020

Living in a pandemic world is like a rotting tomato floating atop a gazpacho of natural disasters, a divided nation, racism, climate change, job loss, a collapsed economy, and on and on. On top of all those things, we now need to obsess over how to keep ourselves healthy. There is so much to worry […]

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I Can’t Stop Touching My Face

July 3, 2020

It is day 115 of pandemic life. It’s a good thing we don’t leave the house, because I still can’t stop touching my face! Sigh. But practice makes perfect, and we are getting more disciplined each day. My husband Eric Troyer (ELO Part II and The Orchestra Starring ELO Former Members) wrote this song during our […]

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An Open Letter to the New Year – 2020

January 6, 2020

Dear 2020, This marks a decade of writing letters to the new year. The past ten years have been a time of dramatic change and transition as I’ve carved out a new way of life for myself. It’s largely been wonderful, but there have also been plenty of dark nights of the soul woven into […]

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Slow Love: A Story of Grief

December 12, 2019

Recently I’ve been spending time with the new regulars at Shama Sanctuary, Pearl and Maude. Pearl has a pretentious air about her and is a bully, regularly chasing off the twin orphans, Precious and Petunia. Maude is easier to love. Her personality is quite chill, and with her one floppy ear, white spot between her […]

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Girls Don’t Poop: My Battle with the Superbug C. diff

November 8, 2019

This blog post is half public service announcement, and half spiritual expose. It’s about poop and knocking on death’s door. And it’s ultimately about how we need to treasure every breath we take because we never know if it will be our last one. I recently spent a week in isolation in the hospital battling […]

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How to Find Shama in a Savage World

September 17, 2019

Shama Sanctuary has been anything but a peaceful safe haven for woodland creatures this summer. When Eric and I returned home in early July after a few weeks of travel, we were excited to meet this year’s fawns. Lily gave birth on May 29th and Pearl and Sparkle likely did soon thereafter. Although initially as […]

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Broken Bones, Ego & Endless Gratitude: Tibial Plateau Fracture Pt. III

June 12, 2019

It’s been 11 months since The Pomerianian Incident left me with a tibial plateau fracture and a broken femur. Although I’m not happy I had this accident, there have been times when the gratitude I feel for the experience of this long, complicated, and on-going recovery has brought me to my knees (uh, figuratively, obviously). […]

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It’s OK If You Don’t Like Me

March 31, 2019

For years now I’ve lived life as an exercise of “How can I find shama in this situation?” Well I have one personality trait that has posed a humongous hurdle to finding inner-peace—my fierce need to be liked. That’s right, I want people to like me, and in the past when they didn’t, I found […]

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Song for Yoda

February 28, 2019
Thumbnail image for Song for Yoda

Today marks two years since our furry shama warrior transitioned to the light. The night we set him free — during a ceremony we had to celebrate his life — I read a thank you letter to Yoda, and my husband Eric Troyer (ELO Pt. 2 and The Orchestra Starring ELO Former Members) sang through tears an […]

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An Open Letter to the New Year – 2019

January 10, 2019

Dear 2019, I have a confession. I wince when I look at the American flag. It horrifies me to admit this. I think somewhere down deep, I’ve buried the thought that the flag of my country has been hijacked by a sector of the population that doesn’t represent anything that I was raised to believe in. […]

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