✨ STILLNESS

From the blog series All Good Things, now part of the Unfolding Hope project—where lyrical storytelling merges with visual and audio presentation.

I had just returned to teaching, enjoying my first real break from IVIg, immunosuppression, and chemo drugs. My classroom was loud, but it was a place I loved. I rolled out of there each day with equal parts tension and gratitude, finally able to say, "I’m tired for a reason, not just from being sick. Not just from Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), which had crossed into my Central Nervous System." Saying, "I’m tired" felt selfish back then. Now, I know it’s not.

✨ Breathe

From the blog series All Good Things, now part of the Unfolding Hope project—where lyrical storytelling merges with visual and audio presentation.

You know that feeling in the horror movie when you hold your breath, hoping the killer doesn’t see you? That. That’s how I describe my illness today. Don’t move too fast, and it won’t get you. But I remembered my former physical therapist telling me, “Breathe, Jon. Breathe.”

✨ TWO-TEA-BAG DAY

From the blog series All Good Things, now part of the Unfolding Hope project—where lyrical storytelling merges with visual and audio presentation.

Sometimes, healing looks like a walk in the cold with Brandi Carlile in your ears and a second cup of tea in your hand. This reflection—part prose, part memory, part breath—is for anyone navigating the space between rest and restlessness, identity and illness, past and present.