Since we're moving out of state, I will be at Printers Row Lit Fest for the last time with my book Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self. Date: Sunday, June 12, 2016 Time: 2-6pm Location:The first tent at the entrance to the Fest, corner of Congress Parkway and Dearborn, Chicago Writers Association …
Continue reading Caring Lessons at Printers Row Lit Fest for Last Time
As an on-again-off-again dieter, I know the meaning of “You are what you eat.” Depending on the era, I’m hot fudge sundae pudgy or Rye Crisp slim. Now, as an older gal in the process of moving away from my urban high-rise life, I’ve become hyperaware that “You are where you live.” It won’t be …
Continue reading The Move (6) – You Are Where You Live / Setting as Character
My friend's absolutely beautiful Mother's Day memory.
"Would you like some water?" I have never been asked this question when doing business in Chicago. We've been here in Sioux Falls for three days and I've been asked if I'd like some water four times-- by our new homeowners insurance agent, our new banker, a salesperson in a furniture store, and the owner …
Continue reading Growing Older: The Move (4) – Do I Look Dehydrated?
I sit here at my desk, overlooking Millennium Park, with a pile of mail, including renewal notices for Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Art Institute, Grant Park Orchestra, a few museums, Lincoln Park Zoo and more. And I’ve had two calls in the last week, Am I renewing or not? If not, they will give my seat …
Continue reading Growing Older: The Move (3) – “Gloriously Blinded”
Long before the dreary days of winter and my life on the couch with fractured ribs, say last December 7, my husband and I flew to Orlando to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. It was on the last day of this trip that I tripped (!) down a step and …
Continue reading Growing Older: Not Too Late for Harry Potter
I'm a big proponent of writing your life story; I often think about the phrase that when we die, our words die with us. My husband and I recently took a trip to Minnesota near where my paternal grandparents had lived. I never met them, or my aunt or uncle. On our trip, we were …
I went to a writer’s conference over the weekend. The morning after, I usually wake up filled with ideas about what to do with many unfinished writing projects. Not today. I woke up this morning feeling embarrassed. Why? It took a second to remember. I’d dropped my phone Saturday. More correctly, I’d let it slide …
Continue reading Growing Older: Getting Use to Embarrassment
Thank you, Becky, for standing up, along with thousands of others on social media, for nursing!
Since I saw The View’s so-called “apology” clip on social media, I’ve given this post a tremendous amount of thought. My first instinct and knee-jerk reaction was to sit down with my laptop and blast them with full force…unload my anger and outrage onto the page…err…computer screen…so I could purge it and get all of that negativity out of my system. I’ll admit, I even got about a quarter of the way through that piece, when I stopped to re-read it. It was a scathing, searing diatribe that quite frankly, made me ashamed of myself. It sounded like something that the View Crew would say…it was petty, spiteful, angry and distasteful. That’s not who I am as a person, a writer or more specifically, a nurse. Quite frequently, I end my blog posts with a sentence urging my readers to be kind to each other. I am a tireless advocate for tolerance, peaceful coexistence and doing…
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As I look back over my 40-year nursing career, I sometimes wish I were still in the classroom so I could tell my students a few things I’ve come to believe are important on the road to becoming leaders. I say leaders, because we need leaders at this time of transition in our health care …
Continue reading Passing Along Advice to My Younger Nursing Colleagues
Write Along with Me 