A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Imagine a condition with symptoms that present differently in each person who has it and no currently approved lab test can definitively confirm the diagnosis. Imagine that the symptoms can flare up and then mysteriously disappear, including fatigue, low grade fevers, joint pain, and mouth sores.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

This morning, as I sat down to work on my column, I found a small scrap of paper on my desk with the following words scrawled on it: See Joy Seek Joy I’d written the words a few days before, contemplating New Year’s resolutions, and then forgotten all about them.

Stray Thoughts: On Resolutions

It’s that time of the year again. Time to assess our progress and try to correct what’s wrong with it before we crash into a heap at the bottom of the hill of life. My resolution will be different this year.

Humanity in Medicine

What does it mean to practice humanity in medicine? The phrase is used as a tagline and in book titles. Humanity and compassion in medicine is touted as something to aspire to, a noble accomplishment.

Local ambulance service trying to hold on

The Timber Lake Ambulance Service needs the help of the community. It’s in crisis mode. It’s not a shortage of funds that is threatening the continuation of this essential life-saving service.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Last year, our neighbor built us a beautiful coop out of salvaged wood and tin. It was insulated with wool from my sheep and even included two reclaimed windows.

Present

I know on the surface it may be hard to believe. That a child born over two thousand years ago in an outbuilding in the middle of nowhere, an immigrant, was the flesh and blood actual son of (while being one and the same with) God almighty. (Um….right.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

It’s that time of year again... time to celebrate my daughter’s arrival earthside! My sweet girl had great timing from the first. The year she was born was the snowiest, stormiest winter we’ve had during the decade I’ve lived on the western prairie.

Stray Thoughts: Merry memories

Sometimes when I close my eyes this time of year, it takes me back to my sister and I, lying on our bellies in pajamas by the Christmas tree and flipping through the Ward’s or J.C. Penney’s catalogue and “claiming” the gifts on the page as our own… great times.

Rural EMS systems in crisis

Emergency medical services (EMS) in rural America are in a state of crisis. Difficulty recruiting emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and the financial constraints of EMS agencies are the major causes of this crisis.