i've been stricken with some really nasty cluster migraines that have been out of control since january, hopefully as part of the new year i will start to get some real treatment, after waiting 6 months for an appointment at the headache clinic at johns hopkins in maryland i am scheduled to go up this coming friday. hopefully it will be a start to a road to recovery and i can put these weeks and months of unbearable pain, loss of work, missed events, days in bed behind me. i've been reading pema chödrön's "the places that scare you" when i am able, it and my practice have helped me to find some solace in facing them. as pema says it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry at the human predicament.

i hope for all of you things are so much better and soon i'll be back to my old self. standing here at the precipice of the decade there is so much to look forward too.