Okay, friends and family! I am hearing from you that you are wondering how I am. I mostly disappeared after the insertion of a pain pump for my new diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. On June 19, I had a Medtronic pain pump inserted into a "pocket" incision made into my right upper abdomen. The …
Continue reading Adventure on Holy Ground #6 / Pancreatic Cancer
Maybe it’s because I lived in a glass house when I was growing up—a parsonage where the parishioners could always watch the behavior of the preacher’s kids—that I have developed a love for being irreverently reverent. I love to act out a bit. It’s hard to be perfect all of one’s life, so I happily …
Continue reading Thoughts on True vs. False Selves on a Snowy Day in Chicago
Creative. I love the sound of this word. As a child in the forties and fifties, I don't think I ever heard it. In fact, the first emphasis on being creative that I encountered was in the late nineties when I read, then taught, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Reading Cameron opened my eyes to …
Continue reading Tidbits for Writers from the 10th Annual Creative Chicago Expo
Here's an opportunity to peruse an array of nursing journals for free! Scroll through NOW--you may find one or a few helpful to you in your practice. This free offer ends on May 12, the final day of Nurses Week. Thanks to publishers Wolters Kluwer / Lippincott Williams & Wilkins for this professional recognition during …
Continue reading Nurses Week 2012: Free Chance to View Nursing Journals!
If you've read Caring Lessons, you know Marianna. In Chapter 7, Finding a Friend, she's the "Red Hair" gal I spotted in a class I was taking and determined, immediately, that she " could be the friend I wanted. A friend with an insatiable mind for learning" (p. 78). It was Marianna who first inspired …
Continue reading Welcome: Marianna Crane and Nursing Stories
If you’re a reader and/or a writer, you would love the free, two-day Printers Row Lit Fest, the largest literary event in the Midwest, sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. Read details here. With 200 booksellers, 7 stages, and more than 100 free literary events, I spent an evening scouring the schedule in the Tribune’s insert, …
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. If your loved one is diagnosed with mental illness, would you know where you and your family could go to learn about the illness and how to be of help to that person? When I was a med-surg nurse and encountered questions about living with a mental illness, I …
Wishing you a happy healthy new year! Read the following tips from the Huffington Post that we all know but can stand to read once again... Susan Blumenthal, M.D.: New Year's Eve 2011: 12 Tips for a Healthier You.
Order Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self NOW! It is here; scroll down to see a pictorial review. Make check payable to: Trinity Christian College (On the memo line, write "Book/Roelofs Freshman Nursing Scholarship”) In the amount of $16.50 ($13.99 per book, plus $2.51 S/H) Mail to: Lois Roelofs, PO Box …
If shipping goes as projected, Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self should arrive here within a week. This morning, on a (famous) writer's website, I read about her mad scramble the week of her book's arrival. I can identify. I've sent emails to lots of friends and family for pre-orders, and …
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