I saw an older woman on the train last week.  Across the crowded aisle, I glimpsed her as she sat demurely, her eyes partially closed, her gray hair tucked into a bun, a briefcase on her lap.  A powerful woman, a woman of substance I thought, a professor enroute to her first class or an…

In honor of Nurse Week, I am replaying my Nurses blog.   I am privileged to be speaking this week and next at several Nurse Week events.  And so  – to salute those quiet heroes who walk among us,  this week’s blog is dedicated to them for whose life hasn’t been touched by a nurse?  It is…

Alright, so instead of stepping up and blogging, tweeting and posting on Facebook, I’ve – well, I’ve failed.  Miserably.  The truth is – I’m a techno-flunkie.  I am stymied by this disconnected connectedness. How can I have “friends” I’ve never met I wonder, and yet I do.   I have read posts and viewed photos that…

I have long been one of those writers who dance on the periphery of Twitter and Facebook and blogs.  I admit I’ve failed miserably at all three, and my excuse has always been – ‘well who really pays attention to all that social networking anyway, and does everybody really need to be connected 24/7?’  It…

I’m not sure why it took me so long to write about my love of lipstick.  Perhaps it’s because it seems to carry a trace of smug vanity, a hint of self absorbed conceit.  But the truth is that lipstick – at least for me – is utterly captivating.  What other product can do what lipstick does?  …

Christmas.  Even the name carries a hint of magic as it twirls through my thoughts stirring up wonderfully evocative memories of enchanting, never to be forgotten moments.   I remember, as though it was yesterday, a snowy Christmas eve, my weary dad trying to shoo us to bed, his finger to his lips, whispering “Shh, can…

Thanksgiving – the purest of holidays, and my personal favorite for it is a day devoted to food, family, friends and gratitude.  It is a day too that reminds me of just how much I have in life – my family and friends, my health, my job, the release of my first book.  I am…

Nurses It’s been six weeks since I last blogged and, though I tried, I couldn’t think of a worthy blog topic.  My mind had been as empty as a politician’s promises.  That is – until yesterday – when I spoke at my nursing school alumni luncheon.  Suddenly, in a room filled with nurses – those…

Just a few short weeks ago, in the last full  throes of summer, I spent a week at the beach and found that all along the curving shoreline, people were hunched over books, lost in stories.  As a debut novelist (who had toted along my own supply of delicious reads), I was thrilled.   Everywhere I…

The murder of ten aid workers in Afghanistan this past week is a stark reminder that the region is fraught with risk for aid workers whose sole purpose in being there is to help, to make a difference in the lives and health of Afghans.  Aid workers have long relied on the fact of their…