MEDIATIONS ON HOPE

Nursing is a time honored profession with unique challenges and unique rewards as illustrated in MEDIATIONS ON HOPE: Nurses’ Stories about Motivation and Inspiration (Kaplan Publishers; On sale: October 7, 2008; Trade Paperback Original; Price: $14.95). Depending on the area of one’s practice “hope” can hide behind the harshest moment or appear in the most innocent of situations. In more than twenty personal stories, readers are treated to the richest range of emotions, events and experiences as nurses write about what has nurtured their own spirits and professional lives.

This collection of inspiring firsthand accounts from every area of the nursing profession including hospitals, private practices, and home health care, heralds special moments that have helped sustain and bolstered the faith of many committed men and women in the nursing profession. In The Peaches, Nancy Harless, tells a story of humor, hope and healing in the post-war Balkans. In My Life of Hope, Doris Urfer shares how the special relationship between her daughter and a pediatric practitioner not only brought a touch of humanity to a sterile medical wasteland but actually inspired her to become a nurse herself. Madeleine Mysko’s cantankerous patient in Mr. Bunyan makes a non-verbal peace offering by sharing a sun-warmed tomato from his balcony garden in a moment when the patient realizes he’s not the only one having a bad day. MEDITATIONS ON HOPE shares these and many more gripping and inspiring moments filled with the human drama that is an integral part of the nursing life, and moves these stories from the oral traditions of previous generations and showcases the diverse talents of the people who now populate the profession.

High Expectations

It's going to be a busy week! On Wed I'll be the keynote speaker at the Women of Excellence Conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The keynote - YIKES! Here's what the brochure says -

"In her book, Harless retains an innocent writers voice. She reveals a facet of her own good will in the light of each story. Even in dire circumstances, Harless finds her own hope at the bottom of the proverbial box of chaos. She provides readers with an orderly, digestible view of the world differences through her lens of tolerance for now and hope for later."

Wow! Like I said....high expectations. I sure hope I don't let them down. Next we're off to Maple Grove, MN for a Book Club discussion on Thurs, and on Saturday I'll be one of the speakers at another women's conference - "Achieving a Healthy Balance" sponsored by the Ridgeview Hospital Foundation in Waconia, Mn. 250 attendees!

But, the best part of the week will be after all the book events are over, when we'll travel back up to Maple Grove, MN to celebrate 'Octoberfest North' with our kids and grandkids. Nov 1sdt
(Dia de Muertes) is also Becky's ( daughter # 3 as Norm numbers them) birthday so we've an extra reason to celebrate this trip! We'll visit and eat and , of course play lots of gmes. I've warned them all that I'm coming with my'game face' on. Like i said - it's going to be a busy week and we all got high expectations!

Women of Unity

We took a road trip to Overland Park, Kansas this weekend to meet with the Women's Group of Unity Church of Overland Park. Turnout for the event was small - perhaps the beautiful sunny day called others outdoors. I know Norm and I were certainly tempted to skip church and go to the park! But, even though the crowd was small, interest in 'Womankidn" and in Casa de Los Angeles was great! I spoke about this wonderful project that provides daycare and so much more for the mothers and children of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Several women expressed interest interest in becoming involved through both volunteering and through financial support. Check this fantastic project out and consider joining us in our support of www.casadelosangeles.org. Note the adorable children of 'Casa' to the right.

ISPAN Conference in Dubuque

I traveled to Dubuque, Iowa last Friday to be the keynote speaker at the ISPAN nursing conference. Fall colors are coming and it was a gorgeous ride along the Mississippi River. An amazing group of 45 bright, enthusiastic perianthesia nurses attended the conference. The theme was 'The World of Perianthesia Nursing. I really learned a lot by attending the all day conference myself, not to mention that I picked up 8 continueing education credits too!

I was the last speaker of the day - a position that I always dread because I know how everyone is anxious to leave for home by then. Sometimes at conferences I've even seen folks sneak out before the last speaker. but not this group! I don't know if they were simply being 'Midwest nice' , or truly interested in hearing the women of Womankind's stories. I'd like to believe the latter. Several spoke with me afterward about finding their own volunteer projects to do in the world. Many purchased their own copy of Womankind - some more than one!

All in all Dubuque was a very good weekend. Now I'm off to Sabula, Iowa this week to meet with a Book Club and to Overland Park, Kansas on Sunday to meet with the Women's Group of Unity Church. They both should be beautiful trips. I wish everyone could see the midwest in the Fall. It's my very favorite time of the year. Glorious!

Summer Vacation is Over !

After spending almost 6 weeks in Mexico I have returned to the Midwest ready to start again with Womenkind's promotion. My Fall schedule kicked off last week with the Medical Partners of Iowa City Book Club. Next week, midweek I'll be speaking to Tri-State Delta Kappa Gamma, a teachers sorority at Jerry’s Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, then on the weekend I'll be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Society of Peri-Anesthesia Nurses Fall Conference in Dubuque. Whew! It looks like it's going to be another busy year! Watch for the details and pictures of "Womankind" book events as well as of my Mexico adventure to follow.

Baby Monk

Baby monk with almond eyes,
Do you miss your mother?
Sent so young, so far away,
called to live with others.

Baby Monk with cherry cheeks
Worn rough by air-thin mountain
Family chosen at age three,
blessed yak butter flowing fountain.

Baby monk in crimson drape,
street begging is your earning.
Sandaled feet trudge ancient streets,
pray wheel clockwise turning.

Baby monk your quiet smile
touches me like no other.
Baby boy with almond eyes,
do you miss your mother?

Off to Minnesota !

We're off to Minnesota this morning....good Lord willing and the creek don't rise. These floods of the Midwest have reeked havoc in everyone's lives. I guess having to take a longer, alternate route to take the grandkids back to Minnesota is small potatoes in the big scheme of things.

We've enjoyed Bradly and Hannah for a week now - potato guns, motorcycle rides, golf and 'goofy golf'. They must have beaten me 100 times at Rummie-Cube. We've canoed and kayaked and they even worked the paddle boat around a friends pond. We've played with clay, painted and made creative things out of paper and wood. We've lazed in hammocks and spent a lot of time laughing at grandpa's silly sayings. There was very little television this week - only one movie and a couple episodes of 'Sponge Bob Square Pants." I am so happy that my grandkids would rather read or play than watch the 'tube!"

So, we're off for 'up North' this morning. I'll be meeting with a Book Club at the Barnes & Noble in Maple Grove on Monday and that is my last book event scheduled for the summer. Whew! Granny is tired and ready for a break. so, it's gardening and reading and writing through July, then off to San Miguel de Allende for the month of August. Ahh, life is good.....

At the Dichee Orphanage Just Outside of Llasa, Tibet

Little Andu with smile so wide,
ruddy cheeks hint of a happy child,
but your dark almond eyes own a sorrow
no child should understand.

Count to ten on fingers
bitten to the quick;
recite your ABC’s;
lead me by a tiny hand
to the musky sweet kitchen
rice boiling on the black wood stove.

Take me to the room filled
with rows of metal beds;
your own shared with yet another
lice-infected, head-shorn little girl.

You stand tall against the yardstick, taped
to the rough wood door.
Your shaved scalp tickles my hand
as I measure, announce, "thirty-five inches,”
and silently add of pure humanity.

Your tiny hands pull on my arm
and at my heart
toward a rusty cage that holds
a mangy black dog big enough to ride.

Pulled by the fear of failure,
pushed by a need to please,
you whisper a single English word – “dog,”
peek up from the corner of your slant eyes,
hope for words of praise from this
pale skinned grandmother of another world.

Little Andu, your arms squeezed around
my neck when time to say good-bye.
Your rough head prickled my chest, burned
a little girl-sized hole that lingers today
as I remember…..

Little Andu with smile so wide,
ruddy cheeks hint of a happy child,
but your dark almond eyes hold a sorrow
no child should understand

Celebrate National Nurses Week with Nancy Harless, author of Womankind

Nancy Harless a retired nurse practitioner from Wever, Iowa, has authored a collection of twenty-one short stories titled, Womankind: Connection and Wisdom around the World.Harless first began traveling around the world as a nurse, always on a shoestring, because she enjoys it. In her book Womankind, Harless retains an innocent writer’s voice. She reveals a facet of her own good will in the light of each story. Even in dire circumstances, Harless finds her own hope at the bottom of the proverbial box of chaos. She provides readers with an orderly, digestible view of the world’ differences through her lens of tolerance for now and hope for later.

********** Des Moines Public Library flyer **************

Nancy Leigh Harless coming to San Miguel de Allende in September

Nancy Leigh Harless is an award winning poet and writer. Her works have been included in many antholgies including Cup of Comfort, The Healing Project, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Travelers Tales, as well as many professional and literary journals
A retired nurse practitioner, Nancy travels often -- usually off the well-paved road. Throughout her travels she has seen women struggle, sometimes against daunting odds. She has seen them nearly break under the weight of their own lives. She also has felt an abundance of spirit, of wisdom and of connection with these same women -- ordinary women who live with extraordinary grace.
What she has come to know for sure is the message of her first book, Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World, a collection of stories gleaned from her international nursing experiences and travels.
Join us at The author's Sala on September 12th in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico this a celebration of Womankind.

Midwest writer to talk about globetrotting, healing at Kennewick signing

Dori O'Neal Mar 29, 2008 (Tri-City Herald )
Nancy Harless has spent the last 10 years trying to make the world a better place.
The nurse-practitioner, who grew up in Benton City but now lives in the Midwest, has taken her healing skills to different parts of the world where she helped the poor and learned how to laugh, love and live with women of many cultures.
She wrote a book about her experiences, Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World....Harless, 60, mostly takes the road less traveled when visiting countries around the globe. Those journeys haven't been to luxury resorts, either. She visits poverty-stricken areas where her medical skills can aid the sick and needy. But she also found a camaraderie among the women of the countries she went to.
In Belize, she sat under a cashew tree in the rainforest with young Mayan mothers trying to answer their questions about a world they knew nothing about. She hung out with cranky, coarse fishwives as they scaled the day's catch on the wharf.
In Kosovo, she navigated dangerously rutted mountain roads to get a poor pregnant woman to a hospital and comforted weeping women as they relived the horrors of war.
"What a ride it's been," Harless said of her adventures in a phone interview this week. "My life has been tremendously effected by the women I've met during this journey."
The stories Harless tells in her book will grip the heart as easily as it will make the reader laugh, said Susan Thiss of Richland.
After reading Womankind, Thiss said, "Wow! There's so much to take in when reading Nancy's book that I had to put it down after each chapter for awhile just so I could breathe normally again."
Though Thiss has never met Harless face-to-face, she grew to know her through her friend, Candy Harmon, who grew up with Harless in Benton City.
"Nancy would write these incredible letters to Candy and then she would forward them to me," Thiss said. "I grew to know her through those letters as I listened to the incredible adventures she had while helping those (less fortunate). Some of those places were just plain scary, but she told the stories in a way that helped me understand that there truly is a common thread among women all over the world."
Harless describes that common thread as a "sisterhood" connection that all women have no matter where they live -- the culture they practice, the heartache they feel and the joy they embrace......

Only the Harlesses

Only the Harlesses would wait for a winter storm, then head out to drive across country just when gas prices approached $4 a gallon. We left Saturday morning and made it to Omaha where we enjoyed the company , or rather enjoyed BEING the company of an old friend, George, and a new friend, Michelle. Fantastic bacon wrapped scallops followed by steak grilled the old-fashioned way over live coals and, of course, lots and lots of good red wine. Wow! If this keeps up I'll be waddling into that last book event of the "Wild West Book Tour" at Aunties bookstore in Spokane on April 10th!

Last night we had hoped to go out to dinner with a friend, but instead we visited her in the hospital. Everyone please hold up 'Sally," so she gets through this rough patch. She's an amazing women - trekked Nepal after she turned 70, sea kayaks and bikes everywhere! She and I used to walk around Lake Geode near where I live in Iowa. It's about an 8-mile trek. I would be pooped by the end of once around, but not Sally - Sal wore a 20 pound pack, and went around the lake twice. She was training to climb a mountain. I just wanted to lose 10 pounds.

We're at Cedar City, Utah tonight after passing through some pretty spectacular country. The red rock around here is at least, if not even more, spectacular as that we saw in New Mexico a few years ago. Very interesting formations too - they look almost 'carved,' which, I guess, they are - carved by the wind! Amazing.

From Julien's Journal

Julien's Journal - Dubuque Area Magazine - New Book Connects Women Around the World -
"......Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World .......From the Mayan mothers in the Belize rainforest to a race for the hospital with a laboring woman in the Kosovo countryside, the author tells the stories of the women she met, separated by land but united by the grace and strength of womankind."

Wever women to speak at civic center - MP NEWS.NET

byMira Cash-Davis
02/28/2008
Nancy Harless, a retired nurse practitioner from Wever, has authored a collection of 21 short stories titled "Womankind: Connection and Wisdom around the World"....Harless began traveling as a nurse. She has traveled "always on a shoestring" even in retirement, because she enjoys it. In her book "Womankind," Harless retains an innocent writer's voice. She reveals a facet of her own good will in the light of each story..... In another story, Harless asks about an end to the shootings in Serbo-Croatia. A Serbian woman replies, "Oh, Nancy, you are so ... what is the word for like a little girl ... innocence?" before explaining to Harless the code of retribution among the Muslim Albanians. ....... Even in dire circumstances, Harless finds her own hope at the bottom of the proverbial box of chaos. She provides readers with an orderly, digestible view of the world's differences through her lens of not only tolerance for now, but hope for later......

Woman who writes about women visits Albert Lea

Albert Lea Tribune - by Sarah Kirchner

Nancy Leigh Harless spent the last 10 years traveling the world and dedicating her time helping others in foreign countries. During her travels she met a lot of women, each with her own story to tell, which Harless captured in her journals. ....Harless was in Albert Lea Friday afternoon, outside of Book World in the Northbridge Mall, sharing her stories, signing books and reading some of her favorite passages. She brought many pictures of the women she met in her travels.
“Womankind” is a collection of short stories from Harless’ work across the world as a women’s health nurse practitioner.....Half the stories in the book are from Harless’ nursing experiences and half are taken from the women she met. ....Harless’ first trip, with her husband, was in 1997. A native of Iowa, she and four others went on a group study exchange to Guatemala and Belize. On that trip she saw both extremes of the countries, the poor and the very wealthy.
“That experience changed the way I want to travel,” she said, and exposed her to the need in the world.....Everywhere Harless went she said there were women with stories to tell and someone to tell it. “I have an ear for so many stories, so now it’s time for a voice,” she said....
The writing came after the travels. Harless and her husband didn’t know during their trips that a book would come out of it, even though she recorded all her experiences in her journals. However, those journals were kept for herself, with no intentions to publish a collection. Over the 10 years of travels, a few minor works had been published in nursing journals.....“Each of the women taught me something or retaught me,” Harless said....Harless toured Iowa and Nebraska with her book. Friday was her first time in Minnesota, and she chose to stop in Albert Lea.

WORDLY WOMAN

Theses are excerpts from the article written by MAry Stegmeir in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier on Saturday - 2-2-08.

In 1997, Nancy Harless and four other Iowa professionals spent a month living in Belize and Guatemala through a Rotary International exchange program. "I've seen poverty here in the United States, but even our poorest are rich by the standards in Guatemala and Belize," said Harless, who visited villages without running water and worked in hospitals where trash lined the hallways. "Nothing would ever be the same for me again."

The nurse immediately started planning a return trip to Belize with her husband, Norm. In 1999 the couple opened a women's clinic in Punta Gorda. And over the next nine years, she visited 15 countries, often using her trips to do service work and learn more about the world. .....

Her experiences off the beaten path are recorded in "Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World." ...."If there is an overall theme to the book, I would say it is one of hope," said the retired 60-year-old. "I think the world can be changed one person at a time. That's the only way it's going to happen." .....

"I think the book appeals to people's curiosity about other cultures," said Emily Longseth, merchandising manager at Waterloo's Barnes & Noble store. "We all have challenges, and we all deal with them in different ways." .....

"One of our editors described it as an 'I am woman, hear me roar,' book," said Kyle Kent, a managing representative with Tate. "Through her stories, (Harless) talks about the connections that all women share, no matter where they live." ....

"We might speak different languages, we dress differently, we eat different foods, but at our basic core we are all alike," Harless said. "All the women in the book care about making a better life for themselves and their families."

We can read the entire article on-line at www.wcfcourier.com and search the archieves 2-2-08.

THUNDER - LIGHTENING - FLURRIES

Winter 2008 has been a long, cold hard one. I received an email from a friend last week. She said,"Isn't this this perfect weather for writing!" Somehow I just can't muster up her enthusisam, so I want to go on record right now as saying - THIS IS THE LAST WINTER I WILL STAY HOME IN THE MIDWEST! Next year I want to be doing something like in the picture to the right - swimming in the ocean with my sister!

Hope you are staying warm in your neck of the woods. We had a blizzard last night ocmplete with thunder and lightening. Something about that is just plain wrong.

From "The Daily Iowian" by Lauren Matovina

Nursing the world to hope
By: Lauren Matovina - The Daily Iowan
Posted: 1/29/08
Many think today's world is still a man's world, but there is still hope, according to Nancy Leigh Harless' book, Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World. An Iowa City local, Harless fits in with the critically acclaimed authors who traipse through town. She will be at the UI Hospitals and Clinics Wild Rose Books today from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. reading from her début anthology.

Womankind is a collection of stories compiled by Harless while on international journeys as a nurse practitioner. She writes about the women she's met, often struggling for survival, and these narratives represent hope in the face of daunting odds.

The book began as a journal, which she kept daily when abroad. In 2003, Harless attended a three-week writing retreat in Norcroft, Minn., and the women's stories began to evolve from simple entries to full-fledged stories.

Womankind is truly a glimpse of women worldwide, linked by a certain sense of unity - sisterhood. Although not following in the witty tone of the Ya-Yas, the stories of these women, such as a Mayan woman who inquires how to stop the babies from coming or Agripina, an 8-year-old Peruvian who is called to be a midwife, are still compelling.

"I have been an ear for so many women, so many stories. It was time to be their voice. What I find most rewarding is sharing their stories and seeing how people respond to them," Harless said. "I hope that the message readers go away with from Womankind is a message of hope. Hope in a world where there almost is no hope. Hope with a capital 'H.' "

Her efforts in countries such as Belize and Guatemala originated as a professional study exchange through the Rotary of Iowa in 1997. The cultures that she and her retired husband, Norm, experienced moved them so greatly they decided to return to Belize in 1999 and build a women's clinic. After completion of the project, Harless retired from her job as nurse practitioner at the Planned Parenthood of Southeast Iowa to immerse herself in her newfound passion.

"At the Burlington Library, we had a book discussion about Womankind. One woman said it perfectly: 'We're really all alike, aren't we?' " Harless said. "There are a lot of underlying themes in Womankind, but the single truth is we are all the same, world round."

E-mail DI reporter Lauren Matovina at
lauren-matovina@uiowa.edu

Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World, with author Nancy Leigh Harless
When: Today, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Where: UIHC Wild Rose Books

© Copyright 2008 Daily Iowan

At New Copperfields Book Service

A crowd gathered at New Copperfield's bookstore in Macomb on Saturday, January 26th to hear Cassandra's story and discuss women's lives around the world. It was an interesting group of women, and a few men too, enjoying Midwest's reprieve from the harsh cold we've been having. With the balmy 50 degrees weather outdoors, I was surprised so many came in for the Book Event!

IT MUST BE MADNESS

It's only 4 degrees outside and predicted to plunge even further tonight. I'm heading out for a roadtrip to Des Moines & Omaha in the morning. I must be mad! Norm's been suggesting all day that I cancel the trip, but i've got three Book Events scheduled so I'm setting the old alarm for 5:00AM and heading out. Besides, I get to see jordan, my 5-year-old grandaughter who lives in Omaha. and, she making gramma a 'Butterfly cake.' And just how could I say "NO" to that?!? Think warm thoughts!

THE HAWK EYE - Author Discusses Travel Experiences

Although I was misquoted a couple of times Willianm Smith did a nice job of covering the Discussion at the Burlington Library yesterday. Here's the article that appeared in today's Hawk Eye.

"When author and Wever resident Nancy Harless asked the packed reading room at the Burlington Public Library if they had read her book, every hand went up.

"Good. If you've all read it, I can tell some more behind-the-scenes stories," she said.

Harless was at the library Saturday morning to discuss her first published book, "Womankind: Connection and Wisdom Around the World," which is a compilation of her experiences as a nurse practitioner working around the world.

Specializing in women's health, Harless began traveling with her husband, Norm, in 1999 to Belize, Guatemala, Peru, southeast Asia, China and war-torn Yugoslavia.

"In 1997, I saw an ad in the Fort Madison paper by the Rotary International Club looking for professionals for a study exchange," she said. "It changed my life."

A couple of years later, she was in Guatemala City, just three months after the peace treaty was signed that ended the 30-year civil war. The peace accord called for the incorporation of the guerilla rebel forces into the mainstream, which caused a sharp increase in crime.

"Almost every family had someone who was kidnapped by the guerilla forces, and it was always women that were kidnapped," she said. "The family I stayed with had an aunt that was kidnapped, and they talked about it very casually. There were even negotiators in the yellow pages."

Harless became a nurse practitioner in her late 30s but never imagined the conditions she would be working in while in Belize.

"They call them the forgotten people. They are the poorest people in the world," Harless said.

She recalled visiting a hospital where trash lined the hallways, and the women were forced to sleep two to a bed after giving birth.

"There was a termite colony this big in the hospital," Harless said as she held her arms in a circle that reached her forehead.

But the book isn't about Harless. It's about the women she met, the struggles they endured and the hope they still held as Harless left for another country. The stories are told through her eyes, but she hardly considers herself the main character.

"I tried to write myself out of it as much as possible," Harless said.

Many of those in attendance were curious about how Harless was able to create such detailed stories.

"I keep a journal every day I'm in another country," Harless said. "I try to keep the stories as true as I can, but you never know how memory will work. Sometimes my husband will remember things a slightly different way than I do."

One of the most beloved stories in the book, titled "Joy in the Morning," is about a 7-year-old girl in Belize named Cassandra who loses her jump rope.

Or as Cassandra puts it so delicately in the book, "Me rope be t'eifed it. It da be gawn!" Translation -- "My rope has been stolen. It is gone."

"They speak English over there, but it is not the kind of English you're used to," Harless said. "It is more of a Pidgin version."

As Harless describes it in her book, Cassandra lived next door in a rumpled clapboard shack with three younger siblings, a teenage aunt and uncle and her grandmother. Jumping rope was the highlight of the girl's day, and she constantly challenged herself to make more jumps.

"She's a leader. That little girl will go far," Harless said.

The jump rope seemed to be the only toy Cassandra's family could afford, and it meant as much to her siblings as it did to her. Early in the story, Harless recounts how the little girl sobbed in her arms.

Despite Cassandra's heartbreak, she was up the next morning, singing into the sunshine as she bathed. Harless called the little girl "Sunshine," resilient to any tragedy, no matter how small, that befell her.

The one detail Harless didn't reveal in the story was whether Cassandra got her rope back. She was more than willing to tell her captive audience at the library, though.

"She did get a rope from me, and then her rope came back the next week. Some of the other kids were borrowing it," Harless said.

Published by Tate Publishing, an Oklahoma-based Christian Publishing House, "Womankind: Connection and Wisdom Around the World" is available at B Dalton bookstore in Westland Mall. Harless is at work on a second book featuring women from her Asian travels, and versions of some of her essays have appeared in the "Chicken Soup For the Soul" series of inspirational books."

WOMANKIND GOES INTERNATIONAL

I recently returned from spending the holidays with my family in Washington state and while it's always wonderful to get together with family; it's equally as nice to come home again - especially since I came home to some exciting news!

I've been invited to give a presentation of WOMANKIND in Mexico! I have high hopes that Socorro, my Spanish teacher in San Miguel, will join us that evening and be recognized as the wonderful woman who "cured whatever ailed me with bouganvilla tea." If you don't know what I am talking about, read 'Socorro's Secret.'

So, I'm sending this invitation out into the universe, or at least out into cyberspace, for everyone to come on down to San Miguel de Allende mid September. You can read the details at www.sanmiguelauthers.com.

Meanwhile, on a less exciting, but very important note, I'll be leading a discussion at the Burlington Library on Saturday at 10:00AM. B.Dalton's will be there to sell books and a portion of the proceeds will go the the 'Friends of the Library.' Bring your own coffee. The muffins are on me. I hope to see you there!

WILD WASHINGTON WOMEN'S BOOK CLUB - The Sisterhood of Skagit County

Last Thursday I was at my sister's home in Mount Vernon, Washington to discuss WOMANKIND with her book club. What an AWESOME group of women! And, if they don't know how to do a book club up right...well, then no one does.

The perfect hostess, Pam greeted us with fresh-frozen margaritas to get everyone into the mood of "world-travel" and set the stage for the amazing plablano chili dinner she had prepared. In honor of Cecelia's story we had a tortilla making contest with Lara taking the prize for the smallest, and the most perfect. If you don't understand, then you haven't read the book yet, in which case you won't understand why the candied 'peaches' for desert either.

As the evening progressed I listened to the women discuss the women of WOMANKIND and even more important - their own lives. I felt a familiar "hug around my shoulders like a warm huipile" - that sense of commradie only women, and goddess, can understand.It was obvious to me that my sister's book club is far more than just of group of readers who gather every other month to talk about a book. They are members of a Sisterhood who respect,love, and support each other through all their good times and the gawd-awful ones too.

"Life can stretch your spirit, they read in WOMANKIND'S last story,"Choices," or tear your soul. You choose."

It was apparent to me these strong, beautiful women already had - long before they read my book.

A BIG THANKS to the Wild Washington Women's Book Club for choosing WOMANKIND for their December read. I look forward to returning in April. Hmmmm....I wonder what we will eat...er, I mean, read?

MIDWEST WRITERS CENTER HOLIDAY BAZAAR

I'm off to Davenport, Iowa this afternoon to take part in the Midwest Writing Center's Holiday Bazaar. There will be writers and artists from all over the Midwest there. Please join us if you're in the area and are interested in promoting 'local talent.' It should be a grand event! The Center is located at 225 Second Street in Davenport. Hope to see you there!

DES MOINES REGISTER - Wever Nurse's Journeys to Other Nations Build Respectful Connections -

Here's exerpts from the Des Moines Register Staff Writer, Mike Kilen's article in the Thanksgiving Day issue of The Des Moines Register -

Nancy Leigh Harless wears a necklace with a turtle medallion."It reminds me that only when you stick your neck out do you move forward. That's my motto," Harless said.She stuck her neck out in 1997. Living in a tiny southeast Iowa town of Wever, the nurse joined a group sponsored by the Rotary International that performed service work in Belize.

"That month in Belize changed my life," she said.It sparked several years of international travel to Mexico, the Kingdom of Tonga and the Balkans. Her experiences became her debut book, "Womankind: Connection & Wisdom Around the World" Courageous women are the focus.

."Women are pretty amazing creatures. They have the ability to stay positive, even when there is nothing to be positive about," she said. Harless saw it often in women from every country she visited while volunteering to help with women's health issues in poor countries. The pride and nurturing of a Mayan woman who could make the perfect corn tortilla for her family. The determination of a nurse in Mexico facing long odds trying to help poverty-stricken women and their children. The mental toughness and grace of a Guatemalan woman with a philandering husband.

"If it sounds a little like the popular "Chicken Soup" series of inspirational books, it is. Harless has stories published in those collections, although not focused exclusively on women."Women are considered the weaker sex, but I continually saw strong women who did what needed to be done," she said. "That is worldwide. We are going to do what is necessary to take care of our children, like a mama bear."

The trips awakened her to the world beyond rural southeast Iowa, which she hopes to continue someday in Africa.The book was formed from journals.."It helps clarify. When I'm traveling the world and seeing so many things that are shocking and appalling, it's a way of processing it," she said. "Without the journal in Kosovo I might have had a breakdown." It also helped her clarify the bond of women everywhere."There is this connection that women have," Harless said. "We 'get' each other."