This past Sunday was National Cancer Survivor’s Day— a holiday to celebrate survivors and remind them and their caregivers that there really is life after a cancer diagnosis. So when do you know that you or your loved one is a cancer survivor? When the scan comes back clear? When the …
Category: strength
May 17
How to Fly into (and out of!) a Hurricane
The more I talk with my cousin Jim about his days of flying with an Air Force weather reconnaissance team, the more I believe that the trials of life—cancer included—are a lot like flying into a hurricane…both require an inordinate amount of trusting. Jim agrees with my observation and says …
Apr 26
How to Be Good to Yourself so You Can Be Better for Someone Else
So what’s the gauge reading on your emotional tank today? Getting low and searching for a fill-up? Half-empty and still draining? On fumes and slowly coasting downhill? I want to encourage caregivers today because the focus is so much on the patient that those standing by them often get forgotten. (If your’re …
Apr 05
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at My Not-So-Peaceful Life
My new book Peace in the Face of Cancer officially released yesterday and I thought I’d share a little behind-the-scenes look at my life—just in case you have any misconception I have it all together! Last week I had three online podcast interviews. The first two were on Skype, which I …
Mar 29
Nothing Surprises God
I don’t think most people are truly prepared to get bad health news. Instead we hope against hope that things will not turn out as we fear and the whole nightmare will go away. Right up until I saw the look on my gastroenterologist’s face after my colonoscopy in June …
Mar 01
How to Encourage the Discouraged
I remember so well the first cancer support group meeting I attended at our community hospital. It was the summer of 1990. I was a reporter for a local newspaper and recently had interviewed Mary, the new group’s facilitator. When I showed up at a support group meeting just eight weeks after …
Feb 08
Wanna see my first selfie?
True confession: I am 63 years old and this is my FIRST SELFIE. When I took it two nights ago and sent it to my three daughters, one responded that she wished more people my age had never taken a selfie. Hmmmmm……..not sure exactly how to take that. Nevertheless, here it is–didn’t …
Jan 11
Happy endings only, please!
If this hasn’t happened to you yet, I’m pretty sure it will. Someone finds out you or your loved one has cancer–or some other serious diagnosis–and begins to tell you a story about a relative or friend of theirs who had a similar one. I’m sure it’s an attempt to …
Dec 07
Missing Someone at Christmas
I thought it wouldn’t. But it did. It happened again this year. Kenny G was belting out jazzy, holiday cheer. A burning candle wafted a delicious candy cane scent. I was home by myself happily decorating our house for Christmas. I pulled a yellowed and torn rectangular box out of the …
Nov 23
Unexpected Blessings from God
I was always amazed when the discussion at my support group meetings turned to the blessings that had come through the survivors’ cancer experiences. Somehow the words blessing and cancer in the same sentence just don’t make sense. I’m a very logical, rational person and having colon cancer at the age …
My Books
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