Wishes for a New Year!

Posted December 31st, 2021

My oh my, we are on the cusp of a new year! That can bring so many feelings for patients, families, staff. Some are relieved the last year is over, some are anxious about the new year, and still, others are eager for a new year of life. It can be a time of ‘resolutions’ […]

Holiday Coping and Enjoying

Posted December 17th, 2021

For cancer patients and families who are in current treatment, holidays can be a bit tricky. We may not have the energy for large gatherings. Our appetites and treatment sensitivities may suggest a small and VERY downsized day…even a day that is very private. People can get really stressed out around the holidays. We can […]

Re-Thinking Community

Posted December 10th, 2021

“When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.”– Jack Kornfield December offers great opportunities for learning about how our intercultural world celebrates.  Among celebrations during this month are: Hanukkah (Jewish) Christmas Day (Christian) Boxing Day (Australian, Canadian, English, Irish) Kwanzaa (African American) […]

Cancer and the Holidays

Posted December 3rd, 2021

For people who are living with cancer and experiencing an often emotional roller coaster, the holidays can bring the blues. These times with friends and family are exactly the ones we want to cherish even more than before cancer, but in reality, they can leave many of us feeling overwhelmed. Families and friends may” be […]

Connecting and Celebrating

Posted December 1st, 2021

December is a month that encompasses the Christian and Jewish celebrations of Christmas and Hanukkah. It also includes spiritually significant days for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, and Zoroastrians. The Interfaith Calendar actually lists 14 different spiritual celebrations during the month of December. Kwanza is an important week-long African heritage cultural celebration that also occurs at the end of December. December is […]

November is National Family Caregivers Month

Posted November 5th, 2021

This is a time across our nation to honor our family caregivers: to recognize the challenges that family caregivers face, and how they manage their day and night as they offer care around the clock! There is just so much that our family caregivers do!  For many of you, caregiving can truly be a 24 […]

Autumn and Letting Go

Posted September 29th, 2021

Our weather has been more than a little unpredictable, but autumn is coming. Soon the weather will be cooler more often!!  The world will literally look different as the trees shed their leaves and provide a new cover for the earth.  I read a marvelous description of this change the other day by  Sarah Addison […]

Scanxiety

Posted September 15th, 2021

All patients have complicated relationships with their scans not unlike the hate-love relationships we have with other technologies in our lives. We first learn we have cancer from scans, then learn from them if that cancer has shrunk or disappeared, then learn if it has come back. Scans are like revolving doors, emotional roulette wheels […]

A Daily Survival Kit for Serious Illness

Posted September 8th, 2021

Adapted from Thomas L. McDermitt, “A long-time cancer patient and skeptic.” NOTE AS YOU READ THIS POST: You don’t have to agree with all of this all of the time. But if it generally speaks to you, try to read all or parts of it every day, or have it read to you. Part of the […]

Honoring our Labor

Posted September 1st, 2021

It’s hard to believe the traditional end of summer, Labor Day is upon us.  It’s a good time to take a moment and honor all that labor—work—means to us and our lives. This includes The works of our ancestors whose labor helped pave the way for each of us. The work of our own hands […]