Editor
The writer hails from County Antrim and has lived in the desert southwest of the United States for over 20 years. Her blog is her virtual home away from home.
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Bullying, Cancer Language, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Language matters, Mastectomy, Memoir, Poetry, Seamus Heaney, Shirley Jackson, Short Stories, Tamoxifen, Writing
breast cancer: she brought it upon herself
Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that…
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Awesome Women, Family, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Memoir, Mother Daughter Relationship, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Culture, Ordinary Things, Social Media, Soundtracks of our Lives, Themes of childhood, Themes of Childhood, Twitter
take two poems, a shot of Skype & call me in the morning …
Social media has enriched my life in ways I never thought possible, while at the same time snuffing out a way of life for so many of us. I will always treasure the hand-written letters that also served as envelopes. Trimmed in red, white, and blue, those sky-blue single sheets, delicate as onion skin, were sturdy enough to make the…
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Arizona, Awesome Women, Family, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Memoir, Memory, Ordinary Things, Poetry, Soundtracks of our Lives, Van Morrison, Wendy Cope, Writing
behind the rituals
This is an updated version of a piece of writing I started over a year ago. Today seemed as good a day as any to be thankful for all the routines and rituals that keep the little trio that is my family on solid ground. Day 22 of this month-long writing challenge asks that we write about something ordinary that inspires or…
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Bullying, Feminism, Goodfellas, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Mother Daughter Relationship, Toxic Workplaces, Workplace Bullying, Workplace Mobbing
burn out, bullying, and rekindling the flame
If you’ve never been on fire, then how can you burn out? Let me count the ways. Yesterday, or the day before, I wrote about bullying in the workplace. As an aside, I am beginning to lose track of the days, which reminds me I could always play a new card – Post Cancer Cognitive Impairment (PCCI); or just admit that I have…