• Fiction
    • Field Notes
    • Non-Fiction
    • Poetry
    • Studio Art Spring 2025
    • Contributors Spring 2025
    • Academic
    • Audio and Videos
  • CROSSROADS BLOG
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • Submit a Book Review
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Mission and Vision
    • The Editors
    • Advisory Board
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • ARCHIVES UPDATE
    • Academic - A-L
    • Academic - M-Z
    • Fiction - A-L
    • Fiction - M-Z
    • Field Notes - A-L
    • Field Notes - M-Z
    • Multimedia
    • Multimedia Fall 2015
    • Multimedia Fall 2016
    • Non-fiction A-L
    • Non-Fiction M-Z
    • Poetry - A-F
    • Poetry G-L
    • Poetry - M-Z
    • Studio Art Spring 2023
    • Studio Art Fall 2022
    • Studio Art Spring 2022
    • Studio Art Spring 2021
    • Studio Art Fall 2020
    • Studio Art to 2013
    • Studio Art Spring 2015
    • Studio Art - Fall 2015
    • Studio Art Spring 2016
    • Studio Art Fall 2016
    • Studio Art Spring 2017
    • Studio Art Fall 2017
    • Studio Art + Multimedia Spring 2018
    • Studio Art Fall 2018
    • Studio Art Spring 2019
    • Studio Art -Fall 2019
    • Studio Art Spring 2020
    • Contributors
    • Contributors SPRING 2015
    • Contributors FALL 2015
    • Contributors Fall 2016
    • Contributors Fall 2017
    • Contributors Fall 2018
    • Contributors Fall 2019 Intima
    • Contributors Spring 2020 Intima
    • Contributors Fall 2020 Intima
    • THE ESSAY CONTEST
    • A Letter to My Younger Self by Candice Kim
    • Ambulance Stories | Benjamin Blue
    • Anguish
    • Body of Work | Anna Dovre
    • Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 | Mitali Chaudhary
    • Beholding Something Fine | Laura Johnsrude
    • Bypass by Benjamin Drum
    • Contents Have Shifted | Kristin Graziano
    • Curtis Prout, MD, Morale Doctor
    • Dr. Ortega and the Fajita Man | Richard B. Weinberg
    • Flo Owned a Beauty Shop... | Jose Bufill
    • The Healing Book | Dustin Grinnell Spring 2020
    • Mangoes | Rachel Prince
    • NOISE | Aparna Ragupathi
    • Not Today, Not Tonight | Donald Kollisch
    • Old Scrubs | Bruce Campbell
    • Physics and Big Lips | Malavika Eby
    • The Reluctant Ferryman | Colleen Cavanaugh
    • The Shape of the Shore | Rana Awdish
    • Something True | Sonny Fillmore
    • String of Pearls | Elizabeth Ryder
    • Things I Learned From Pole Dancing | Elise Mullan
    • Top Surgery | Angela Tang-Tan
    • Try to Turn a Cowboy Vegan | Towela King
    • Vicious by Tim Cunningham
    • Waiting Room | Shruti Koti
    • When the Screen Falls Away by Michael Rizzo
    • Wound Care | Craig Blinderman
    • Your First Pediatric Intubation | Rachel Kowalsky
Menu

Intima

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
A Journal of Narrative Medicine

Your Custom Text Here

Intima

  • OUR CURRENT ISSUE
    • Fiction
    • Field Notes
    • Non-Fiction
    • Poetry
    • Studio Art Spring 2025
    • Contributors Spring 2025
    • Academic
    • Audio and Videos
  • CROSSROADS BLOG
  • BOOK REVIEWS
    • BOOK REVIEWS
    • Submit a Book Review
  • Submissions
    • Submission Guidelines
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • The Editors
    • Advisory Board
    • Contact
    • Contributors
  • Archives
    • ARCHIVES UPDATE
    • Academic - A-L
    • Academic - M-Z
    • Fiction - A-L
    • Fiction - M-Z
    • Field Notes - A-L
    • Field Notes - M-Z
    • Multimedia
    • Multimedia Fall 2015
    • Multimedia Fall 2016
    • Non-fiction A-L
    • Non-Fiction M-Z
    • Poetry - A-F
    • Poetry G-L
    • Poetry - M-Z
    • Studio Art Spring 2023
    • Studio Art Fall 2022
    • Studio Art Spring 2022
    • Studio Art Spring 2021
    • Studio Art Fall 2020
    • Studio Art to 2013
    • Studio Art Spring 2015
    • Studio Art - Fall 2015
    • Studio Art Spring 2016
    • Studio Art Fall 2016
    • Studio Art Spring 2017
    • Studio Art Fall 2017
    • Studio Art + Multimedia Spring 2018
    • Studio Art Fall 2018
    • Studio Art Spring 2019
    • Studio Art -Fall 2019
    • Studio Art Spring 2020
    • Contributors
    • Contributors SPRING 2015
    • Contributors FALL 2015
    • Contributors Fall 2016
    • Contributors Fall 2017
    • Contributors Fall 2018
    • Contributors Fall 2019 Intima
    • Contributors Spring 2020 Intima
    • Contributors Fall 2020 Intima
    • THE ESSAY CONTEST
  • ESSAYS
    • A Letter to My Younger Self by Candice Kim
    • Ambulance Stories | Benjamin Blue
    • Anguish
    • Body of Work | Anna Dovre
    • Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 | Mitali Chaudhary
    • Beholding Something Fine | Laura Johnsrude
    • Bypass by Benjamin Drum
    • Contents Have Shifted | Kristin Graziano
    • Curtis Prout, MD, Morale Doctor
    • Dr. Ortega and the Fajita Man | Richard B. Weinberg
    • Flo Owned a Beauty Shop... | Jose Bufill
    • The Healing Book | Dustin Grinnell Spring 2020
    • Mangoes | Rachel Prince
    • NOISE | Aparna Ragupathi
    • Not Today, Not Tonight | Donald Kollisch
    • Old Scrubs | Bruce Campbell
    • Physics and Big Lips | Malavika Eby
    • The Reluctant Ferryman | Colleen Cavanaugh
    • The Shape of the Shore | Rana Awdish
    • Something True | Sonny Fillmore
    • String of Pearls | Elizabeth Ryder
    • Things I Learned From Pole Dancing | Elise Mullan
    • Top Surgery | Angela Tang-Tan
    • Try to Turn a Cowboy Vegan | Towela King
    • Vicious by Tim Cunningham
    • Waiting Room | Shruti Koti
    • When the Screen Falls Away by Michael Rizzo
    • Wound Care | Craig Blinderman
    • Your First Pediatric Intubation | Rachel Kowalsky

Endurance and Gratitude: A reflection on finding joy in difficult moments by Laura Carmen Arena

January 6, 2024 Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

The poem “Ode to Color” (Spring 2014 Intima) by Karen George begins with a note on gratitude by the author’s husband, who lists light moving through the colored glass on a window.  Through this entry, the poet reflects on light and color, immersing the reader in the richly-colored love shared. Light bathes their spaces, present even in the shadows. Despite sadness and the threat of significant loss, it shines through in the many-jeweled moments noticed by the poet, who celebrates the heroic in small things that bring joy and hope.

In “Triptych: Oncology Fish,” I also reflect on intimate moments with my mother, through the fluctuations of emotions in the hospital treatment suite. The fish tank in the reception area is a prism refracting our experiences. In the central photo of the triptych, my mother is seen through the clear water of the tank.  A fish swims between us.  

After reading “Ode to Color,” I thought about my mother’s posture in the photo—how she leans forward in the seat, her face partly shaded by the straw hat, her cane resting nearby, ready for her to rise again.  Although a strong, energetic and fearless woman, she seems introspective or tired.

Her pose reminds me of the image of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom and heroic victory, in the 460 BC bas-relief, now in the Acropolis museum.  Athena’s enigmatic posture in this work has been described as one of mourning, pondering or resting.  Like my mother, she holds her gaze pensively downward.  The goddess wears a battle helmet, while my mother wears a straw hat.  Instead of Athena’s spear, my mother has her cane nearby.  The rectangular block before Athena is mysterious: Scholars disagree whether it could be a stele marking a holy space,  a monument for fallen heroes, or a marker for a competitive race.  While we often think of gods and goddesses as bigger than life, this powerful image is about half a meter in height.

Both Karen George’s poem, and my “Triptych:Oncology Fish,” share an expression of admiration for the resplendent inner strength in our loved ones, emanating despite the foreboding shadows of illness, suffering and loss.  The emotions floating around our lived spaces as our loved ones endure and battle disease in the face of difficult circumstances move in many directions including grieving, reflecting, hoping, enduring and celebrating, colors that shift and radiate with the heroically hopeful, illuminating presence of gratitude and love.

Above: One photo from the triptych © Oncology Fish. Laura Arena Fall 2023 Intima. Take a moment to view all three of these remarkable photographs and learn more about how the work came about.


Laura Carmen Arena is an Argentinian-American writer and visual artist and an experienced yoga and meditation teacher based in Cambridge. She has led workshops on meditation and yoga at universities and other professional settings and her photography has appeared in local and international outlets. She studied literature at New York University, and contemplative traditions, education and creative writing at Harvard University, where she also served as a teaching fellow, photographer, web master and assistant director of multicultural affairs.

In Caregivers, daughters, emergency room healthcare, graphic medicine Tags caregiving, graphic medicine, illness narratives, hospitals, metamorphosis
← Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: When the Outside Looks Different From What’s Happening Inside by Kimberly Mitchell"Reading" Patients When Illiteracy is What Afflicts Them: A reflection by medical oncologist Jose Bufill →

Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine
Copyright ©2025
ISSN 2766-628X