The Pink Month

October 25th, 2013
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When I see pink products for sale during the month of October, I wonder how much of the money really goes to researching a cure for breast cancer.  Probably not very much.

I know I’m not alone in this thought because I’ve heard and read similar comments from others discussing the reason why these products are being sold.  Buy them because you like them or need them.  But I think most people now see those oh so pretty pink-ribboned products as a merchandising trick better left alone.

If anything good has come out of the marketing of these pink products, … Read More

Tossing My Plastics

August 30th, 2013
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Staying healthy is job one for me. Every healthy tip that I can incorporate into my life is just one more thing that may keep me out of the doctor’s office as far as I am concerned.  I try to eat foods that are as fresh as possible, exercise whenever I can and verbalize my stress so that it doesn’t remain bottled up inside me and cause some kind of sickness.Recently I added a new health concern to my wellness list: avoiding plastics and/or preservatives.For years I used to bring frozen food products (read Lean Cuisine) to the office and… Read More

Angelina’s Health Decision

May 15th, 2013
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Angelina Jolie made a powerful decision.  It’s not a decision that every woman has the opportunity to make, but I stand and applaud her courage and wish her a future of wellness. Faced with medical information from her doctors that she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer because she carried the BRCA1 gene, she decided to take control of her health and be proactive.  She decided at the young age of 37 to have a double mastectomy which means she had both of her currently healthy breasts surgically… Read More

Widowed Fathers Reaching Out

April 23rd, 2013
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I know a few widowed mothers and have great respect for how they handle the role of single parent.I don’t know any widowed fathers so I have always been curious about how they juggle the demands of raising children and handling their work careers. I imagine that a family member helps them; maybe a mother, a sister or even a brother.  Or maybe the fathers had already hired someone to help them when their wives sadly became too ill or were weakened by treatments. But after reading the insightful New York Times story below, I found that widowed fathers and… Read More

A Positive Attitude In Cancerland

April 10th, 2013
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I don’t always feel positive about all of the situations that life throws my way but I do feel very positive about life. Would I continue to feel positive if I were diagnosed with cancer? I would hope so!  I would hope that my love of living, my love for my family and friends and my love of life in general would kick my fighting spirit into high gear and that I would become determined not to let cancer win. But that’s easy for me to say because I have not been diagnosed with cancer.  I know a handful of… Read More

Discovering The Silver Pen

January 18th, 2012
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A close relative just shared this insightful poem with me and my first reaction to it is that  J. Hendel totally nailed it! This poem and others can be found on a beautiful website called The Silver Pen (www.thesilverpen.com).  When I first logged on to The Silver Pen a few days ago, I wondered how I could have missed knowing about this great site since it has been on the internet for a little over three years.  Things like this make me nervous because I start to wonder what else is out there that I don’t know about.  Oh well…I’m… Read More

Pretty In Pink — Grieve Out Loud

June 5th, 2011
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-losing-three-sisters-to-cancer-bethesda-firefighter-turns-to-advocacy/2011/05/26/AGDZfqHH_story.html I read this timely story in The Washington Post yesterday about a local fireman, Marshall Moneymaker, who had lost his three older sisters to breast cancer in less than two years.  Moneymaker and his wife did all they could to help the three sisters beat this awful disease but it wasn’t enough.  After burying three sisters, the enormity of what had happened left Moneymaker emotionally exhausted. Where do you go when you have felt pain and loss deeper than you ever thought possible? You can shut down and put out the “Vacant” sign or you can stay involved in… Read More