Diane W. Shannon

Dec 31, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Diane W. Shannon

Last week, while on vacation, my husband and I were swimming in a salt-water inlet when a rainstorm hit. (Actually, I was indulging in my favorite leisure-time pursuit: floating prone, chin resting on my forearm, on a lime green inner tube.)Fortunately, there was no lightning, though there was a bit of hail. We decided to stick it out. Heck, we were already wet.

Nov 26, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Diane W. Shannon |Michael McGuire |Advait Suvarnakar |Aashka Suvarnakar

Here’s something you may already know. I didn’t until recently, but I sure do now, and it’s a lesson I won’t forget—something I wish I’d known three weeks ago. Rabbits love cone flowers. We recently downsized to a cute house with window boxes. I’ve never had window boxes before and am honestly not much of a gardener. I went to the local place where we buy plants and picked out some tall red ones, some shorter purple ones, and even shorter yellow ones.

May 8, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Diane W. Shannon |Michael McGuire |Advait Suvarnakar |Aashka Suvarnakar

Intriguing question: What is one word that can free us? You might think it is love. Love is so powerful in lifting shame, sadness, and loneliness, but that’s not the kind of freedom I’m referring to. Instead, I’m referring to the freedom to put aside others’ presumed or verbalized expectations of us and do something in our own best interest.

Oct 3, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Arthur Lazarus |Robert Pearl |John H. Wasson |Diane W. Shannon

In the vast universe of all that has been written, writing about loss, illness, and death is probably second only to writing about intimacy, relationships, and longing. In the world of narrative medicine, the order is reversed. Patients are harnessing the power of writing, sharing, and telling stories of health and sickness using personal narratives to navigate illness, trauma, and grief.

Oct 3, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Diane W. Shannon |Amanda Xi |Danielle Arnold |Anna Delamerced

This summer, my cousin Cindy has been raising Monarch butterflies. Two weeks ago, when I was visiting her for the weekend, she gave me a chrysalis to bring home. She’d already done the bulk of the work, feeding and caring for the caterpillar. I left with a mesh-sided carrier and an expected due date of 7 days. I was instructed on how to determine the gender and that I needed to choose a name.