Hi, I’m Christine Bride, a woman who can preach the importance of taking care of herself and the need for making time and space for self-care, yet has a hard time prioritizing tending to her own needs. I know intellectually that I need to care for myself. Haven’t we all heard the metaphor “put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others”? Yet, somehow actually taking the steps to prioritize caring for my own needs took a back seat to doing a lot of other things. These other things were often good, meaningful, and helpful to others but at times left me feeling drained. This happened so often that many/most nights I’d fall into bed exhausted. Not the good kind of exhaustion, the wow, I’m so tired because I physically challenged myself today and look forward to sleeping peacefully through the night exhaustion, but the weary exhaustion that comes from relentlessly working through one issue after another with no rest in sight. Through all my doing and busyness, I wasn’t taking care of the things I knew needed to change in my life. I wasn’t tending to my life.
Through this blog, I’ll share my story and that of my family, of the journey we’ve been on with my husband Joe’s health – from receiving a serious medical diagnosis of a rare cancer, his treatment, recovery, and how he lives with a permanent disability. I’ll share how we cope and adapt, and how my own health issue led me to, finally, tend to my life.
I’ll share lessons and bits of wisdom I’ve learned along the way and resources from my research on the broad topics of resilience, health, and healing and the specific yet equally broad topics of health behavior, burnout, caregiving, grief, isolation, support, service, hope, and play. I’ll share what works for us, what doesn’t, and what’s challenging. You can probably already guess these are different for Joe than they are for me. What works for me and for Joe is also different than what works for our two daughters, Shannon and Catie. The four of us have four different perspectives on how we experienced and walked through this journey. While I will share Joe’s health habits and routines, I will mainly be sharing my own perspective, rather than his or our daughters. Perhaps through hearing our story, you’ll find nuggets of information, ideas, and wisdom that work for you and your journey. I hope the stories and resources shared here help you grow in courage, hope, and resilience.
Please note, my education and experience are in public health, behavioral science, and health education. I am not a health care practitioner and am not dispensing any medical advice in this blog. I encourage you to work with your health care team in all matters related to your health. However, if you need to tend to your life in the areas I mention above or if this sounds interesting to you, explore the topics in this blog and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. If you have questions or want to write to me personally, please contact me here.
Last, know that I am currently on my own healing journey and that the topic list will grow in time.
Tend to your life,Christine
Fun – It Does a Body and Mind Good!
Fun… somehow, I’d lost it. I lost having it, lost seeking it. I forgot how much having fun lifts my spirit, my mood, and keeps me pleasant to be around. Over the last decade or so, like so many, I’ve walked through health crises (Read Our Story and My Final Straw Moment), the loss of...Continue reading→
Brain Health
You may be wondering what brain health has to do with being resilient, or perhaps the relationship between the two is pretty obvious to you. I didn’t make the connection until I’d read the book Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent and neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and...Continue reading→
Self-Compassion
In his book, Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness, Dr. Rick Hanson’s chapter on compassion begins with a plea to be compassionate to yourself and the benefits of doing so. Until I’d read this, I hadn’t considered what it meant to be kind and compassionate to myself or even...Continue reading→
Compassion
Throughout my life I have been the recipient of others’ kind deeds. When I or someone in my family was sick or walking through something challenging, family, friends, and neighbors stepped up to help in all sorts of ways. Meals, breads, and treats would arrive with notes letting us we were being thought of. Rides...Continue reading→
Resilience
I remember a woman named Mary who was exceedingly kind. Mary always had a smile on her face and a gentle demeanor. What really stuck me about Mary was when her husband was diagnosed with cancer and his health began to decline, Mary’s demeanor and treatment towards others never changed, at least outwardly. She remained...Continue reading→
My Final Straw Moment
In May 2024, I had my “final straw“ moment. In her book Thrive, Arianna Huffington describes her final straw moment - that moment when one crosses a threshold and knows deeply in their being that something has to (I’m paraphrasing here) “radically change because you cannot continue to go on this way.” To me, my...Continue reading→
Getting a Diagnosis ~ Part I
In May of 2015, my husband Joe hurt his knee. Initially, we thought he strained it and it would feel better after rest and ice. It didn’t. Perhaps physical therapy would help. It didn’t. We thought the orthopedic surgeon would be able to diagnose what was causing the pain. Over the next year, Joe endured...Continue reading→
Immediately After the Amputation ~ Part II
At the time of the diagnosis and surgery we were close to the 2-year mark of the original injury. Joe could not use his left leg as the tumor prevented him from straightening it. I could visibly see how the tumor was slowly blocking the blood flow to his calf and foot. Joe had tingling...Continue reading→
Home Care and Prosthetics ~ Part III
Before Joe’s amputation, we didn’t know what to expect of Joe’s healing. We made arrangements for in-home care after the surgery, but the focus was on having the surgery as soon as possible. There was so much to process in a short time. Once Joe came home, nurses came to our home to check on...Continue reading→
The Spread ~ Part IV
We were progressing well with Joe’s prosthetic leg when a spot showed up on a scan in his lung. Since bone cancer spreads to the lungs, Joe was having routines scans to detect things early in case it spread. In February 2018, a lung biopsy confirmed that cancer had spread to Joe’s lungs. It was...Continue reading→