Green Mountain Meandering Missives

According to Google AI (Artificial Intelligence), the definition of the term empathy is: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This gift (i.e., empathy ), in my opinion, is one that is spiritual in nature, goes well beyond or rather transcends the usual understanding one might typically possess. Much deeper. Put another way (via Google AI, again), … Empathy is the ability or practice of imagining or trying to deeply understand what someone else is feeling or what it’s like to be in their situation. Empathy is often described as the ability to feel what others are feeling as if you are feeling it yourself to feel empathy for someone is to Empathize. Based on years and years of both personal observation as well as of others on my part, although most living beings or souls, including critters and so on (e.g., dogs as well as cats, per se) are capable of being empathic toward others; not all do, however, it can depend upon the depth of their relationship with each...

Note: last edited and updated on: Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 8:46 AM.   At Peace (finding peace and comfort during times of severe distress) Much has transpired as well as passed since my last missive had been penned and posted ( here ), including about how the pain and discomfort caused by the colon cancer has grown worse as well as that, as of recently (Saturday, October 11, 2025), I am now in hospice care (in addition, the cancer has also spread to my liver).  This means I have six months or less to live (that said, some people survive beyond that timeframe).  The hospice care received will be provided at home, all of it, at least initially and for as long as might be possible. Pain management will be among the most important things provided and is sorely needed (an understatement and no exaggeration either). Besides that, there will be other services provided; including, among other things, a social worker who visited with me this morning. If I had understood corr...

  Morgan’s Miscellaneous Musings Photo: Miss Cleo (Cleopatra), supervising her human (yours truly) while he is sitting at the dining table using his laptop computer. It has been quite a while since I last sat down to attempt to write something, including because I had not been able to access my laptop computer for several months until recently.  In addition, I had finally managed to get around to clearing all of the numerous junk clutter off of the dining table permanently recently, instead of moving it to the bed and then putting it back on the table again. It was no small, nor easy, chore and effort, but well worth doing. Not to mention about how, without going into all of the details, I am often zonked out and unable to stay awake due to the pain management regimen that I am currently on. In fact, at the moment, it is not easy for me to stay awake and not fall asleep, as often happens in the late morning and early afternoon.  Earlier, I had zonked out while seated in t...

  Photo: Miss Cleo, lounging comfortably underneath her human's new premium high quality walker/wheelchair. View more photos of the walker/wheelchair, here . Quite a lot has gone on since my last blog post ( here ), including having been discharged from the UVM Medical Center nearly two and a half weeks ago (more or less), with time seeming to pass by rather slowly or so it seems. In addition, even though I was using a cane, having taken a fall and skinning my knee a bit sometime in between then and now. Due to this, because of recently posting on my Facebook page about needing as well as wanting to obtain a new walker with a seat, I was generously and kindly gifted with a premium high quality walker/wheelchair earlier yesterday (Thursday). It is such a blessing, indeed, particularly since my balance has been rather poor of late (read: vertigo) and I have also been somewhat weak at times. With it having a seat with which to sit and rest upon, it should help in these regards. ...

Photo: Stained glass windo w within the second floor chapel of the Central Vermont Medical Center  (CVMC): Late last year, as I had previously blogged about earlier this year, I had been hospitalized for a full two weeks at the CVMC, here More recently, due to the overly intense and quite severe acute as well as oftentimes chronic pain being experienced, I went to the emergency room and had been admitted. It appears that this could possibly be another prolonged hospitalization;  including due to needing to assess and putting in place a different pain management plan, run tests as well as undergo an upcoming aggressive palliative radiation five day treatment course -- which is taking place at the UVM Medical Center Cancer Treatment Center located in Burlington, where I am currently located and likely will remain for nearly a week or so before returning to CVMC. Had been transported from CVMC to the UVM Medical Center via the Barre Town Ambulance   service. As I understand...

With apologies for not being able to post for a while, however, among other things that had been going on these last few months, I had been unable to gain access to my laptop computer for about two months or so for some reason, until now. For those not already in the know and without going into all of the specific details within this particular blog post of mine, in late November of last year I had gone to the emergency room at the Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC), was admitted and stayed in one of the units there for two full weeks. Had been diagnosed with, among other things, a malignant cancerous tumor in my lower colon, which as it turns out might or might not be operable. Various potential treatment options were mentioned and discussed, including surgery, as well as radiation and chemo; if I understood correctly, the latter two of those treatments would be done five days a week over the course of four weeks, on an outpatient basis at CVMC, possibly followed by continued chem...

Photo: Vermont State House (taken by Morgan W. Brown). Revisiting Mental Health Treatment within Vermont The very nature of self-determination as well as independence would seem to dictate not merely having freedom of choice, but rather also include both the freedom and the right to ensure one's self-defined and self-expressed wishes, choices and decisions are not defined, limited, narrowed or controlled by outside influences, no matter how well-intended or well-meaning. Each person needs to decide as well as do what is best for themselves and, as such, they are the only one who actually knows what that is during any given moment or circumstance. When it comes to health care and, most particularly concerning mental health treatment and related matters, save (i.e., except for retaining one's own) true and actual freedom of choice regarding such decisions, this means that like most anything else in this life there are truly no absolutes, nor should there be any imposed on any pe...

Recently, because I had mentioned to someone about my having been exhausted, they had asked me if I had ever heard of the seven spoons of energy (aka Spoon Theory ; via But You Don't Look Sick).  Had not heard about spoon theory previously and find it to be very interesting, particularly as it helps to describe and explain my own constant as well as ongoing struggles with lack of energy as well as exhaustion over the years, decades actually. The fact is, I have been experiencing a certain amount of exhaustion again of late, including currently. It seems that I've been using up my limited daily supply of spoons (of energy). Yet it's not merely the number of spoons available, but also the size of the spoon as well. More about spoon theory, here  and here (via Psychology Today ).

Besides building additional permanent housing across Vermont as quickly as is possible and also providing enough funding to the array of housing and social service providers with which to ensure sufficient provision of various high quality support and services being made available and offered on a voluntary basis (read related commentary of mine, here ; via vtdigger ; circa: 2013), what more will be necessary to help better address the most dire needs of those living unhoused within our region? In a nutshell, according to my read of a recent vtdigger article ( here ) , it is providing an adequate medical respite housing program within an accessible home-like environment based in a community of one's choosing. Good Samaritan Welcome Center , located on Route 302 in Berlin and had been the former Twin City Motel, opened its doors to people living unhoused in the Summer of 2022 (read related blog post of theirs, here ): [...] With tremendous financial investment from VHCB and generou...