Adjusting our Lens
The following is an excerpt from the last chapter of my book, Piece of Work, a memoir... Not long ago, my teenage daughters were bickering, and I said to them, but also to myself, “If we could spend half the time we currently spend trying to make our own voice be...
Living in a Multiverse
It's like I have multiple personalities, or I'm living in a parallel universe...a multiverse maybe? For 72 hours of the week, I'm working half the time, driving and sleeping the rest. And for the remaining 96 hours of the week, I'm recovering while also doing...
Pink and Blue – a Poem
I love the color blue. But not on a baby’s skin. For skin we want bright pink. Blue ok on feet and hands. Immature circulation, normal. Not face, not lips, not chest. My stethoscope is baby blue. No baby’s chest should match it. Cut the cord quick. Get her to the...
Fight Song – September 20, 2019
Today is the second anniversary of the day I received my breast cancer diagnosis. Here's an excerpt from my upcoming memoir, Believe about the moment when I got the news... So, as it turns out, the very first person I tell that I have breast cancer is my...
A Second Exodus
1956, Alexandria, Egypt The wave was bigger than he had anticipated, knocking him off his feet and pushing him down under for a few seconds before carrying him quickly to the shore and spitting him out onto the sand. At nine years old, Sami wasn’t the tallest...
Arya Grace
My baby is turning five tomorrow! Facebook memory from five years ago today.. Every morning for about the last month, I have woken up half surprised that my water didn't break during the night and that instead I'm still pregnant! (I have a double uterus, so the baby...
Moving Along the Illness-Wellness Continuum over a Lifetime
This is not my typical blog post, but a paper I had to write for my GCU nursing class. Since much of my creative juices are currently being directed toward nursing school, I figured I might as well publish some of my work here on my blog! Moving Along the...
Believe
Believe. That one little word has always been a powerful and important one in my life. But it took on a whole new level the Monday before Christmas 2003, when I silently asked God if a little Jewish girl from Scottsdale, Arizona could suddenly start believing in Jesus...
Final Breaths and Other Small Things
His breaths had slowed to such an interval that by the time they stopped, I stood there for several minutes with my hand on his chest to be sure that it was no longer rising and falling. I wasn’t entirely sure he really was gone until the nurse came in with her...
The Real Reason I Bust my Butt Wiping Butts for a Living
It’s hard to believe it was only just over a year ago that I went from cushy and clean office jobs to the messy manual labor of patient care in order to get some experience as I become a nurse. There have been many moments when I wondered what the hell I was thinking...