In Part 3 and the last of this series, I'm happy to tell you about a really fun memory from living in Lafayette, Indiana, from third through seventh grade--swimming in the Columbian Park pool with my friends on summer afternoons. The pool was very large and round. The deep part was in the middle. The …
Using Photos to Write Memoir – Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, photos of my childhood home in Lafayette, Indiana, fifty-eight years ago and now, prompted many memories, all which could spin off into stories perfect for writing a memoir of that period. Today, the photos are about the schools and church I attended during those years from third through seventh …
Chicago’s Air and Water Show, Preview: Blue Angels – 2012
Yesterday, Marv and took the bus up to Oak Street Beach and caught the Blue Angels practicing for the Air and Water Show that is on today and tomorrow from 10-3. Come on down!
Using Photos to Write Memoir – Part 1
As a PK, preacher’s kid, I moved every few years. Last weekend, I became aware that, in writing memoir, I rarely address my past peripatetic life. And now I have a fresh reason to at least jot some memory prompts for later stories on the place where I lived from age nine to twelve: Lafayette, …
Another Tip for Writing Memoir
Infusing ordinary lives with detail makes story, Marilyn Abildskov* told us at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in July. She presented several examples where authors framed their stories around the everyday details of life. One example, the “action detail” of washing dishes, propelled me to “free associate.” In Tobias Wolff’s short story, “Say Yes,” washing …
Nurses are Lifelong Learners
It’s August 1 today and my body is automatically going into back-to-school mode. For about half of my seventy years, either as a student myself or as a teacher of nursing students, I’d spend August assessing my wardrobe from next-to-skin to outerwear. Then I’d shop. My wardrobe had to be in place before school started …
Caring Lessons in the Nursing Classroom
Nursing faculty: Are you planning textbooks for your fall courses? I invite you to consider Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self as a good choice for a recommended or required reading in courses related to career development. Caring Lessons chronicles my forty years in nursing, from diploma to PhD and nurse's …
“What’s Love Got to Do with It? A Field Guide to the…
Sentence in Poetry and Prose" was the catchy title faculty member Juliet Patterson chose for the week session I just completed at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. The festival, held on the University of Iowa's campus in Iowa City, is enjoying its twenty-sixth year. Starting in 2001, I've attended the festival seven times and taken …
Continue reading “What’s Love Got to Do with It? A Field Guide to the…
Another Retirement Crisis
You’d think I’d be having a heat-related crisis today—it’s the third day in Chicago of heat indexes over one hundred—but instead I’m having my second identity crisis of the year. The first was in May when, after fifty years, I could not give up my registered nurse license and, at the last minute, clicked myself …
Chicago’s Storm Today 7-1-12
11:49:41am The storm seemed to leave as quickly as it had come. Sailboats went back out in the lake and people resumed their sightseeing in Millennium Park and on Michigan Avenue. And I was reminded once again that "The heavens declare the glory of God..." Psalm 19:1.
Write Along with Me 