Keep On Dancing

The first stories I told were on the stage. A Saturday morning arts class when I was four years old introduced me to ballet, tap and theatre, and I was infatuated. I have spent most of my life on the stage. Ballet was my first love, but I adored all forms of dance, and I...

RA-solutions: Nothing is Final

I have been busy preparing for new changes– the end of one job, the continuation and further development of a career. I’ve been thinking on how to navigate these changes and the goals I’d like to work towards. I don’t make resolutions per se – it’s in the word. Resolution. It sounds so final, and...

A Perfect Day in the Storm

For two years we have each lived in the circle of our own inner sanctums, leaving the big wide world on the outside. Now the world is trying to creep back in again, swirling with uncertainty and overwhelming us with how fast it’s moving, but instead of trying to keep up with it, or worrying...

One Year Later…

One year ago, my husband and I said to hell with Covid and decided to get married - so we did. One year later, we are celebrating our anniversary in a brave new world. The pandemic altered a lot of plans - travel, birthday parties, graduations, and weddings. We were forced to learn a new...

White Noise

Photo by J.G. Chayko It’s halfway through the month of May and the sun has made a reappearance after a few days of unsettled overcast weather. I get out of bed feeling the heat in my swollen fingers and shake the morning stiffness from my knees. It’s the one of the few mornings I have...

Ripples Along the Surface

Just over a year ago, on December 31st of 2019, my husband and I returned home from our yearly getaway to Las Vegas, the last international trip we took before the world changed. At that time Covid was still a distant ghost in the headlines, something far away and across the seas. Shortly after returning...

We’re Almost There…

The west coast windstorms swept in from the ocean drowning December in its usual cyclical trend. This year, the rain and wind seemed particularly heartless in the year we call 2020. When the rain stopped for a few days, the twinkling lights on houses and patios lit up the night sky, and filled the air...

The Road Ahead

The weak light of the sun filters through the clouds, radiating a soft glow on a grey November day. Soggy amber leaves thread the groove beneath the curb of the sidewalk. The road stretches clear and quiet ahead. A cool breeze rushes over my face, each breath reminding me how lucky I am to be...

The Gold Outside My Window

“We never saw it coming. We never could have guessed that a virus would change our world. The possibility only existed in movies, and there was always a dynamic hero that came to the rescue with a cure.”  - J.G. Chayko - Imagine RA Network: Chronic Illness in a Pandemic Life. The year is 2020....

Harvesting Life

The turning of the year is fast approaching. The darkness emerges a little earlier each day, the mornings are damp and shrouded in a ghostly mist, Mother Nature dresses in her finest colors and summons the howling wind to whip up a potpourri of brilliant splendor for our eyes. The burnt light from the harvest...