Suleika Jaouad Archives - The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally

Posts Tagged With: Suleika Jaouad

Day 4885: Between Two Kingdoms

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Ann Koplow

I’ve just finished the audiobook Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, read by the author Suleika Jaouad.

I have also lived my life between the two kingdoms of the sick and the well, so I identify with much of what Suleika Jaouad so beautifully describes in her book and in this TED talk:

While cancer (hers) and a congenital heart condition (mine) are different kingdoms in certain ways, Suleika and I have both have spent much of our lives between the two kingdoms of the sick and the well.

The title Between Two Kingdoms was inspired by this quote from Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor.

Now that I am between two kingdoms of great books, I’ve just put a hold on Illness as Metaphor.

Here are the images I captured while listening to Between Two Kingdoms.

Here and now, I’m between two kingdoms of home/work, land/sea (I’m taking the ferry today), connection/solitude, and blogging/not blogging.

Thanks to all who accompany me as I navigate between many forms of two kingdoms, including YOU!

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: “Triggers” by Ann Koplow, “What Almost Dying Taught Me About Living, cats, Illness as Metaphor, May 18 2026, Suleika Jaouad, Susan Sontag, The Daily Bitch Calendar, the South Shore of Boston, Twitter, what people have trouble throwing away | 4 Comments

Day 3387: A state of constant amazement

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Ann Koplow

Yesterday, I was happy to see this sentence about a state of constant amazement in the book “1325 Buddhist Ways to be Happy” by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

I think I AM awake because I do seem to live in a state of constant amazement. Maybe that’s why I use the word “amazing” constantly.

When I went out for a walk in the 50 degree weather yesterday with no raincoat (because my iPhone told me there was no chance of precipitation), I was in a state of constant amazement because of

the beauty that was all around me,
the rain that started when I was far from home, and
the amazing and almost biblical HAIL, from which I could find no escape and therefore decided to laugh at and enjoy.

Do you see the state of constant amazement in my other images for today?

I’m in a state of constant amazement about how things are never what you expect. Three years ago, on National Siblings Day, Michael and I decided to not worry for a year, because worry never helps anything. We didn’t know what was ahead of us from April 10, 2019 through April 10, 2020 (my son and I both getting shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, my speaking at my college reunion, Michael and I getting married, my getting COVID at a group therapy conference in NYC, the COVID lockdowns, our cat Oscar getting cancer, etc.) or we might have been in a state of constant amazement at our hope to not worry for that amazing year.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “a state of constant amazement.”

I’m in a state of constant amazement about what people go through in this world and the healing power of love.

Thanks to all who are sharing my state of constant amazement here and now, including YOU.

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism | Tags: 1325 Buddhist Ways to Be Happy, Barbara Ann Kipfer, cancer, COVID-19, gratitude, hail in April, Jon Batiste, National Days April 10 2022, National Siblings Day, Suleika Jaouad, the South Shore of Boston | 26 Comments