Faith. Family. Career. Those were the priorities, in order, the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin so clearly articulated during a fast meeting this week in Madison. She excused herself to take a quick phone call to help her daughter, which opened the door to chatting about a few personal details of her life when she came […]
Read MoreTalking to kids about cancer isn’t easy, but if a close friend or relative has been diagnosed, it’s a critical conversation. Kids are observant and if cancer has entered your inner circle, I guarantee it’s on their minds in one way or another, especially if they’re preschool age and up. I learned this when my […]
Read MoreOne day, it hit me. I was living most of my life looking at or through a box. Not literally, of course. But my eyes and ears were mostly focused on messages with four lines surrounding them. Sometimes, it was the TV box. Other times, the boxes were of computer screens, calendar dates or pages […]
Read MoreSometimes I sit so comfortably in cancer survivorship that I forget to write health updates. I think that’s normal. Oftentimes when we’re sick, we’re diligent to update friends and family when we’re in the thick of treatment and surgery. People are praying. Cooks are cooking. Friends are offering to do everything from errands to laundry […]
Read MoreKnow what might be more polarizing than politics? Camping. You all are funny – I posted on my Facebook page and asked for tips as I headed toward the wild wild woods this weekend and got a variety of responses. All made me laugh out loud. They also showed me the mixed feelings people have […]
Read MoreEight years ago, I swore I would never get another tattoo but recently, I got an arrow tattoo. The arrow tattoo has a variety of meanings for me. The arrow tattoo points to identity I’m a cancer survivor. Over the years as I’ve worked through this pain, I’ve not only dug up trauma from cancer […]
Read MoreThere is justifiably two sides to every story, but here are my thoughts on health care reform as a cancer survivor. I try to maintain a balanced opinion when it comes to political issues and see all perspectives and sides. But I find myself struggling when Congress doesn’t vote to support access to health care, […]
Read MoreMy favorite joke of April Fool’s Day occurred when a friend changed his birthday on Facebook to April 1 and his news feed filled up with sentiments that should have occurred in July. People eventually caught on and everyone watching had a good laugh. After all, laughing is good for us; it’s even medicinal at […]
Read MoreLosing Grandma I gently patted around the blankets looking for her frail hand to hold, but it was too buried. So, I settled for combing my fingers through her thinning gray hair. Under normal circumstances, she’d hate it that so many saw her without freshly styled curls. But this week, there was no beauty shop […]
Read MoreIf I could travel back in time and offer a cancer survivor some words of encouragement – the 17-year-old standing in the back of the library who had just been told she had colon cancer, it would be this: Look up. Breathe. Exhale. Seek. Repeat. And then I’d add in some of this as we sit […]
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