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”
Fun things first. In honor of this third anniversary, I'm giving away one copy of Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self. All you have to do to qualify for a drawing is make a comment on this post. On Wednesday, September 25, I will randomly select one winner, contact that winner …
Continue reading Caring Lessons Celebrates Third Anniversary
I will always remember the phone call from my friend: “I’ve got cancer.” Was she joking? No, not with that taut tone of voice. Marianna and I were friends who happened to be nurses. Before that phone call, we’d joke that any of our abnormal symptoms—bleeding, headache, constipation—was cancer. We didn’t mean it, but it …
Continue reading DCIS: Breast Cancer or a Precancer? – My Experience as a Friend
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 …
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
You may think writing down these ten things is bizarre. Well, the idea is not mine. It’s an exercise my writing group agreed to do for this week’s meeting, adopting it from “The Time is Now” column in the March/April issue of Poets&Writers. And just having had a scare in which I thought I may …
Continue reading Ten Things I Will Not Think About in My Last Seconds of Life
If you live with a chronic illness, you know that nothing surprises you. You are used to new symptoms arising out of the blue, and you are accustomed to doctors' visits, diagnostic tests, and hospitalizations. About a year ago, I swore off doctors for treatment of my fibromyalgia. Weary of chasing a cure and reaching …
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 …
I’m a senior, not in high school or college, but in life. You could also say I’m a senior in the University of Chicago Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults, because I’m in my fourth and final year. It is Spring Break, and I’m happy to be free for a bit. Readings this past …
Write Along with Me 