Letting go my desire for survival
I’m missing the routines that keep me steady and grounded. Living moment to moment— So happy to be w
View ArticleHow to Prevent a Code as a Nurse (and it’s not the way you think)
Hers was a story that would make you shake your head in disbelief just to hear the background, never mind what all actually went down on my shift with her. An unstable family, a turbulent social life,...
View ArticleA Strange Gift: The Bittersweet Calling to Nursing
Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever done postmortem care on a little patient, minus the partial experience I had as a nursing student a few years ago. Surreal hardly begins to describe the...
View ArticleHow is Work: The Question I Struggle to Answer as a Nurse
It must seem odd, why I hesitate. It’s a pretty standard question in standard conversation. “How is work?” But I hesitate every time, and I think at times I stare at the person questioning me. I’m...
View ArticleHow to Prevent a Code as a Nurse (and it’s not the way you think)
Hers was a story that would make you shake your head in disbelief just to hear the background, never mind what all actually went down on my shift with her. An unstable family, a turbulent social life,...
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Compassion trumps all...
Healthcare and Humanity thinks this piece reflects the essence of healthcare. Compassion. Kindness. Respect. Congratulations Dr. Hacker for not only being such a wonderful doctor to your patients,...
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Saying Good-bye
At Snowline Hospice, I work with people who bravely say good-bye. I work with people who struggle to say good-bye through their tears. I have people who can’t say good-bye because they are in denial...
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Forever Young
I never met a situation for which there wasn’t an appropriate Joan Baez song. This is what made it possible to survive the vagaries of high school. Of course, when it is a Dylan song performed by Baez...
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Memorial
Five years ago this weekend… I know that Memorial Day is a tribute to our brave armed services members past, especially those who gave their lives in service to our country, and I am grateful to live...
View ArticleFree Time
I. We visit this carnival bright striped stripped with neon, Inert gasses to breathe and a feast of brothers to feed on. For some think they can earn a place of grace with honey and gold, Bolder still...
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Walking with grief and mystery
“Wherever there is love, there is grief – a life without it is unthinkable.” Stephen Jenkinson, Orphan Wisdom School Last night I was in the presence of greatness. Not the kind of greatness that...
View ArticleGuest Post: Tina Frisco - On Facing Death
Friend and blogger John Fioravanti kindly invited me to guest post on his impressive blog. I was thr
View ArticleThe Elusive Work-Life Balance: On Self-Compassion
On my morning drive to work, I shake off the cloud of drowsiness, and I debate whether to get caught up on the news – sadly nowadays, a too easy way to already burden myself before my 6:50AM arrival at...
View ArticleTomorrow Does Not Belong to Us
Many of us suffer from the Scarlett O’Hara syndrome – that tomorrow is another day. We depend on that – thinking if we don’t get something done – we have tomorrow. Or if we forgot to do something for...
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Morphine and Cynicism
Bad doses of life…a hellion’s spell. Perhaps, a weeping, barely, breathing corpse. Eluding a bed that needs changing. One cannot put demons to bed. If they are not sleeping. Morphine and cynicism such...
View ArticleUnfettered
She wants a green funeral laid to rest at the roots of her Christian upbringing where monks roam the Monastery of the Holy Spirit and peace has inherited these acres. Just a plain pine box will encase...
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Happy Birthday, Dear Chemo.
My relentless positivity is waning. The dark thoughts are setting in, and becoming far harder to shake off than the last few eyelashes which have long been sobbed into a snotty tissue. I have two...
View ArticleAccretion/Debridement
When House was new it asked for filling. We complied with staples and treats and whimsy and hope, in their turns. Repujado’s required tools are good for nothing else. Parts of looms lay akimbo in the...
View ArticlePsychopomp and Circumstance
[image description: a white vulture leans back, wings folded in front of it. A light blooms behind it, with a prismatic effect across it’s face and beak. It’s eyes seem very determined, for a bird....
View ArticleCalgary couple were about to leave for B.C. to be with dying sister, when...
A Calgary couple, set to hit the road to be at the bedside of a dying loved one, are now scrambling after their truck was stolen. The 1997 GMC Sierra 2500 diesel truck was undergoing repairs at High...
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