Jim Smith

Exercising was like eating vegetables. I knew it was good for me, but I couldn’t seem to keep at it. Casually walking for fun was great, but walking regularly was...

Ok, imagine this: you’re lying on your back, someone puts a steel bucket over your head then bangs on it with a hammer, over and over in rapid, ear-splitting succession...

We never really see ourselves. I mean that literally. Our eyes face forward at the world around us. We have no real way of seeing what others see when they...

Many long-time readers know that here, and on my blog, I refer to leukemia as if it were a real person. I call him Leuk. This somehow makes it easier...

We humans are strange animals. Despite all evidence to the contrary, we sometimes think things will always stay the same. Like a horse with blinders on, we only see what’s...

I like metaphors. I see them everywhere. Do you like metaphors? I hope so because today you’re getting one. A few years ago I had a sailboat named Fargone. Unfortunately...

I’ve been going through doctors like candy. My original oncologist left the insurer. The next doctor, whom I liked very much, retired. My current doctor seems nice but I only...

As a boy, I was into biology. I used to collect butterflies and explored tide pools. I stuffed a jar inside one of my mother’s nylons and captured plankton by...

It’s a funny thing, leukemia. I’m in the wait and watch stage so, for me, Leuk is still an invisible enemy lurking somewhere inside. And though I can’t see him...

I grew up at a bay in Washington State. That’s probably why I find boating in Puget Sound so calming. It’s like I draw my peace from it. Out there...

There’s a corkboard at the front of my desk. I see it when I sit down to write, but I seldom notice the things pinned to it. Today though, one...

One of our members passed away recently. He went by the handle “bluchs.” He once wrote a profound statement in a forum on this site. I’ve mentioned part of it...

It’s important to reduce stress in our lives. We don’t have the health, the strength, or the time for a stressful life. But how do we get there? Here are...

I recently read a post by one of our members. It seems her family, and in particular, her parents implied that it is somehow her fault she has cancer. The...

Picture this. Your friend was captured by aliens. They experimented on her, crossing her DNA with the DNA of one of their hottest babes from planet Euphoria. You drove straight...

I like to sail. Until recently, I had a 25-foot Lancer. Ironically, I named her “Fargone,” as in, we-sail-off-and-are-far-gone. But a tree fell on her one winter. My poor boat...

It turns out, I talk out loud to myself. It’s a habit I seldom notice unless my wife is in the room. It drives her nuts. She always thinks I'm...

I was born in the 50s; came of age in the 60s; went to college and married in the 70s; raised my kids in the 80s; watched them graduate high...

Once, when I was a boy, I found a little green caterpillar. His many tiny feet tickled as he crawled up my finger and down to my palm. It was...

In my lifetime, I’ve known of six people who’ve committed suicide. Three I knew personally. None of them had cancer. Some would say they were selfish and only thinking of...