I think it was the tea. For several days last week, I methodically decluttered my closets and drawers in one bedroom, one kitchen, one living room, one dining room, one study, one hallway, and three bathrooms. My husband even noticed. “Whatever you’re on, let me know, so next time the house needs to be cleaned, …
Continue reading Tea-inspired Decluttering Party Naturally Leads to “Caring Lessons”
I believe, along with “you are what you say” and “you are what you eat”, that “you are what you read.” So I was curious to read a recent Tribune article1 by Nara Schoenberg that cited Andrew Hill’s The Best Books You Will Never Read…Ever and listed the top ten. My immediate reaction was to …
If you have a loved one living with either one of these illnesses and would like to understand them better, then Ka Hancock’s Dancing on Broken Glass is a compelling, informative read. Hancock, as a nurse in the clinical specialty of psychiatry, dives into the minds of Mickey and Lucy as they forge a life …
Continue reading Living with Bipolar Illness or Breast Cancer
Stories helped me grow up without racial prejudice. In the forties, when I was little, my dad would tell me stories at bedtime. His characters were Inky and Licorice; they lived in my all-white world, and we had the same adventures. Without giving these little boys a label, I knew, perhaps by their names, that …
Continue reading Printers Row Lit Fest – Chicago 2013 – The Power of Stories
The only thing I know is that I don't know. A thought attributed to Plato or Socrates (From my notes the last day of class, June 4, 2013)Today I want to give thanks for the University of Chicago's Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults. And thanks for retirement years to be able to do …
Continue reading U of Chicago – Degree and Certificate Program Convocation Ceremony – 2013
If you like to read, this challenge will intrigue you: write a list of the last five books you’ve read. Then consider what your list might mean to someone else. John Warner figures that out in his weekly Chicago Tribune column titled The Biblioracle. From the lists emailed to him, he assesses what the person likes to read—for …
As she lay dying from pancreatic cancer, Nurse Martha Keochareon wanted to do more than plan her funeral. So she called her alma mater and offered to become a “case study” for nursing students. She reasoned she could help students learn about the dying process while, at the same time, it would be a way …
From Pigtails to Chin Hairs: A Memoir and More is the captivating title of blogger and humorist Becky Povich's new book. As a fellow writer and blogging friend, I'm thrilled she's made it this far and am happy to support her in her next goal of getting her book published. If you recall my story …
A few months ago, I wrote about looking forward to going back to school. Back to the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago. I'd completed three of the four years a few years ago and had a feeling in my bones that I wanted to complete that last year. …
I"m working on a speech to nurses about why we should write our nursing stories. I came up with a host of reasons, twenty-three to be exact, but the one that grounds all the other reasons I read in Carolyn Heilbrun's Writing a Woman's Life, published in 1988. This book is a classic because in …
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