Mother Earth

Sharing the Rainbow

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Sat, 1 Jun 2013 14:08:00 GMT

The gay community has always enveloped me, with love, with generosity, with humor and in ways of deeply understanding that no other community of people can or could. I am not gay, yet I have been surrounded by important gay folks my whole life.

Striving for Zero

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:45:00 GMT

I look at the past 31 years. We have spent a bazillion dollars on HIV prevention programs across the U.S. We have plastered billboards and created every poster, sign and flyer or note card known to mankind. There are PSAs, commercials, short videos, long videos, YouTubes, full feature movies.

The Sight of Death

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Fri, 5 Oct 2012 14:43:00 GMT

I recently had one of the worst possible scares. Ok, perhaps not THE WORST, but it felt like it at the time. My Virus came back, also known as having a detectable viral load. This meant that either one or more of my medications failed and was no longer working. The fear behind that is "what if they all failed and I'm resistant to everything?! What then? What are my options if there are none left?"

The Pain Blog

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 10:43:00 GMT

What is the last pain you felt? Was it physical or emotional? Pain is dually a physical sensation and an emotion that has the ability to exist for all of us humans. Thus it is in many ways normal. I have never met a human that feels no pain. And it seems our reaction to pain is what separates the ones who cope well with pain from the ones who need help.

Shines the Sun

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:52:00 GMT

The Sun shines on everyone. It shines on all of us, on our bad days and on our good, our somber days and our joyous days. There was a time when we knew little about the sun and whole cultures revered the sun. It hasn't lost any of its powers, it is still very mysterious, wondrous and life giving. And it has not missed a day of your life since you or I arrived here. It shines undeterred. When is the last time you looked up in the sky and said thank you to the sun, for providing you with warmth, sunlight? When is the last time you realized that our ancestors gazed upon, pondered its true significance? The sun has been a daily presence for you and for me. It is my hope that you will spring from your chair and go out and feel the sunshine on your face. Say Hello.

Meditations on Love and Death (or "Day Spa")

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:30:00 GMT

I remember when I was growing up, my pediatrician father used to come home and drink himself into oblivion; a place I always wondered why he frequented so often. One day, he said plainly that as a doctor that he just hated all the dying and that he thought that by him becoming a doctor that he would have a hand in helping the dying of innocent lives come to an abrupt stop.

He was so sad. His patients were all children with cancer. I remember making rounds with him at Children's Hospital. The children did not look sad to me, almost the opposite in fact. There was pain, yes, and no child liked being bald, but mention the idea of death to a child and you will find and amazing grace and acceptance and excitability to the very idea. They were not sad, like my dad, or like their own parents.

Conversations With My Virus

motherearthblog@yahoo.com (Shana Cozad) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:31:00 GMT

Greetings and salutations friends!

I prefer to call you all friends, because I think the world these days has more than enough enemies all around and I do not wish to be among the hated or despised. Yet, there are those in this world who will hate me, simply because I breathe the air they breathe. I am a woman living with AIDS.

I suppose my story isn't so unnatural. Girl meets boy. Boy lies about his status. Girl is ignorant and doesn't know anything about boundaries or how to protect herself. Girl breaks up with boy after a one-year relationship. Girl finds out in break-up argument that boy is infected. Girl goes and gets tested. Girl is positive and has AIDS already.