I’m not usually the kind of gal who gets excited about royal scandals. Quite the opposite, I swiftly roll my eyes and move past the headlines. That is until I learned about Wallis Simpson in a film written and directed by Madonna.
A Madonna movie? Yep. I’m a loyal Madonna fan, as anyone who knows me will confirm. I was beyond curious when the “Queen of Pop”—quite out of the blue—chose to make a movie about Wallis Simpson, the two-time American divorcée who became the Duchess of Windsor.
Why did I boycott camping seven years ago? One fateful summer day in Wisconsin. Okay, I’m being a tad dramatic. Mainly, it rained a shit ton on that fateful day. Not a gentle rain that sprinkles upon your face. More like a humid downpour…with flooding. Tent flooding. Mud in places you’ve never seen. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
It began innocently enough.
We set up camp and decided to take a nice long hike when dark and ominous storms invaded the blue skies. We had to cut our hike short, because we were all about to slide down a giant hill into the lake below. Mudslides thrived. Waterfalls appeared. It was like a giant slip and slide with a watery, rocky doom at the end.
Many of us stop and think about our health only when things go wrong. By that point the body forces us to stop and listen. As a lifelong migraine sufferer, I’ve learned to listen attentively to my body.
If I ignore what my body is saying…I’m out of commission for 1-3 days. The pain is so unbearable that it makes me nauseous. I can’t keep anything down. I can’t move. If a three-day migraine episode happens, I get the happy privilege of visiting the emergency room for a life-saving butt shot.
Genetically this was the hand I was dealt, since migraines occur on both sides of my family. The debilitating effect of migraines has been my Everest all my life. Changing my lifestyle was the only way I was going to win this battle.
A decade ago I went on a natural migraine treatment mission, and I’ve lived a life with less pain ever since. Here’s how.
I’ll never forget the first time Nina Simone pierced my heart. I was in my early twenties, dancing to Feeling Good in my jazz class. I heard plenty of her songs before that day—her voice was unmistakable. Yet this was the first moment I connected with her, body and soul.
I began to wonder: Who is the woman behind this emotionally commanding voice? A voice like that doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes from a place very deep inside.
I heard the most beautifully resolute sentence the other night. A man was talking to me and Mr. H about his wife, and he said: “We’re still our favorite people.”
I loved this. It stuck to my heart like emotional glue.
The next day a different man shared his upcoming ten-year anniversary plans with us. He was surprising his wife (and mother of three) with a getaway. That trip wasn’t to the usual romantic destination you might expect, on some white sand beach or big city with reservation-only restaurants. It was Oklahoma City, where they got married.
I loved this too. It stuck to my heart like emotional glue.
I guess I was moved by how much both of these men loved their wives. And, how very real it was. When people have been married for a long time, there is a different level of life experience.
