This is my 27^th and last column to appear in The Myeloma Beacon.

I wrote my first column in November 2010. At that time, I was seven years past my initial diagnosis and had been in remission for five years. In that first column, I wrote about the experiment of my cracked cup, which is an analogy for figuring out how to live with my flawed but functioning body.

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen’s famous lyrics reveal so much about hardships of …

One of my favorite sayings is a Chinese proverb that I have previously quoted here, but it is worth mentioning again. “It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions, but hard to get one single remedy.”

Wandering through life with my partner, multiple myeloma, has been a call for just the right gifts to help me along. Finding what we need to thrive is a mysterious task – trusting that these right gifts will come our way may be the key to receiving them.

A Buddhist monk wears a robe and carries …

In the western world where I live, the long dark nights of December bring the light and festivities of the close of our calendar year. People honor and celebrate in many ways and meanings. It is as if we are all aboard a train that is traveling through this territory, whether we like it or not.

Despite the particular problems facing the nation or the world - and despite our personal faith or lack of it - a call for cheer falls upon us all. People at various stages of living with …

I imagine people with spouses and sig­nif­i­cant others have someone who helps them remember. It would be hard to erase the marks of disease from life. For those of us who are unpartnered, it’s easier to pretend – to revise the myeloma story as needed.

Forging new rela­tion­ships may be perilous. Dating involves telling tales and revealing secrets.

Living far beyond the initial trauma of receiving a multiple myeloma diag­nosis is a blessing. In my case, I regard my journey into that territory as an unfortunate detour of some kind. I escaped …

An altar is a place of transformation. It is typically a physical space where tokens, mementos, and sacred souvenirs are arranged. Aside from any religious meaning, the use of altars is found across cultures. An altar is simply a place to remember. My connection to multiple myeloma is like an internal altar. Mine is a storybook that began about ten years ago during the fall season.

This time of year, I seem to revisit the pages of my book more closely. Strangely, this is not a story I want to throw away. …

A well-known psychologist and philosopher, James Hillman, wrote:

“The great task of a life-sustaining culture is to keep the invisibles attached… And then we must look back over our lives at some of the accidents and curiosities and oddities and troubles and sicknesses and begin to see more in those things than we saw before…There is still a thread of individual character that determines how you live through those things. This is destiny. Symptoms are part of our calling — they force us to go deeper.”

The term “invisibles” intrigues me. I …

This week’s Beacon forum poll asks, “How does your quality of life compare to your quality of life prior to your multiple myeloma symptoms and diagnosis?” There is still another day left for people to respond to the poll, but so far, “moderately worse” seems to be the leading answer.

I answered “significantly better.” How can this be? I often feel aching bones and less-than-boundless energy, and although I require more sleep, I have a harder time falling asleep. These symptoms are really quite minimal — The more I pay attention …