Oona (Taleh) profile picture

Oona (Taleh)

One step at a time... literally!

About Me

Coffee lover, dog chaser, yoga addict, former Catholic School girl and track team member....Get Your Own! | View Slideshow
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My Interests

Yoga (Ashtanga/Vinyasa); LOVE coffee; art museums; traveling; talking about what others consider annoying "psychobabble"; trying to hold a conversation with Sean (the little philosopher); trying to teach my brother yoga... which is pointless; Dreaming about going to Mysore, India (the home of Ashtanga yoga), and just recently following my alma mater's sports teams (GO JASPERS... hope I don't jinx their good luck!)

I'd like to meet:

Who I'd Like to meet?Free spirits, fun/flexible individuals, quirky is OK as long as you're not my patient, old friends and new... Anyone who enjoys coffee, KNOWS who Marc Chagall is, likes dogs and minty chocolate chip frozen yogurt is cool in my book!Oh, and if you think that honesty is "overrated"... you have a problem. I know good therapists in the city that can help :)

Music:

Radiohead, The Juliana Theory, Snow Patrol, The Shore, Tresspasers William, Marcy Playground, REM, Coldplay, Devics, Death Cab for Cutie, Remy Zero, Imogen Heap, Augustana, Shiny Toy Guns, Kill Hannah, Dynamite Walls, Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Chevelle, and TONS of indie bands I just cannot remember!

Movies:

Amelie, Empire of the sun, Lost in translation, If Lucy fell, Color of Paradise (indie film from Iran... amazing), The Pianist, Angela's Ashes (the book was way better), I am Sam, American Beauty, Garden State (sorry.. I'm a fan of Natalie Portman and Zach Braff), The Virgin Suicides, White Oleander (the book was better), etc...

Television:

Sex and the City, Will and Grace, Friends, Six Feet Under, My So Called Life (Yes, most of the shows I liked are GONE!!); The Colbert Report; The Daily Show; South Park (at times... most enjoyable when watching it with my brother :)

Books:

The Kite Runner, Father Goriot (Balzac), The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood is VERY cool!), Coffinman, Me and Emma, My Name is Asher Lev, Man's Search for Meaning, Ka, The Gitta, Ramayana, The House of Spirits (Allende), Paula, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Blackbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, White Oleander, Angela's Ashes, and many, many MORE!

Heroes:

Mahatma Gandhi (although I don't agree with his stance on women and birth control), Sri Krishna Patthabi Jois, My Nanna, Alex (my "twin", who believes in me when I lack the strength to do so), Rob R (my college pal and BEST friend who has taught me how to smile in the face of adversity), the medical team at John Hopkins, my immunologist, and most importantly my LITTLE PATIENTS... each one is a hero.

My Blog

On chronic illness....

The Elephant In The Room There's an elephant in the room. It is large and squatting, so it is hard to get around it. Yet we squeeze by with "How are you?" and "I am fine"& And a thousand other forms ...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Thu, 31 May 2007 09:05:00 PST

Life with Lupus

It's been 6 years since I was officially diagnosed with Lupus; 3 years since I went through chemotherapy... This video shows clipps of people and families that deal or have dealt with what I face. Eac...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Sat, 07 Apr 2007 05:58:00 PST

Please

This was written by one of my adolescent Patients at one of the hospitals I worked in the past. It was neatly folded and tucked in one of my coat pockets. As I dug my hands into the coat this morning ...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:46:00 PST

On chemotherapy and other things...

"First we lose our attachment to Life; at the same time we lose our fear of Death. Finally, we feel peaceful and serene inside. Forgiving of all things, we enter a state where we hold all things in gr...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:38:00 PST

Letting go

"Breathe. Let go. And know that this moment is the only one you know you have for sure" (Iyengar). As individuals we have the tendency to cling to things... to people... to objects around us...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Thu, 26 Oct 2006 05:39:00 PST

The finish line

Maybe the finish line, what we consider the 'end' is really the beginning... the start of a new life... a new chapter. Ten years ago a woman who found out she was HIV positive decided she wanted to a...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Sun, 01 Oct 2006 08:56:00 PST

Sunshine

On Sunday, September 24, 2006 "J", my 6 year old Pt passed away. He was the little boy who loved to look at picture books, was affraid of the dark and of spiders. Who loved Super Man, glitter, picture...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:49:00 PST

"The next place I go"

Warren Hanson has written one of the most beautiful books on death and grief for children. Some might wonder: "A book about DEATH for kids? Why?". I would have reacted in a similar manner ye...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Sat, 09 Sep 2006 09:37:00 PST

Skin

"Skin has a good memory. Skin is like the ground we walk every day; you can read a whole history in it if you know how to look" ("Skin Game" by Caroline Kettlewell). I worked with N my first year as a...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:57:00 PST

There are no mistakes in life...

"I think of the ownership of children, the objectification of children. Once a parent-child bond is sexually violated, there is no love possible as we know it. Love, as we conceive it, has been redefi...
Posted by Oona (Taleh) on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 03:01:00 PST