Jbarthels

Yesterday was a day to be inspired. Brandi, Brie, and I, along with buddies Lisa and Ashley joined approximately 1,500 of our closest friends to walk the streets of Rockford at the Second Annual Women’s March. The sun was warm, but the energy of the crowd sizzled. Chants were heard all along the route of…

The holidays came. And then they went. With barely a notice on my part. After enjoying a pre-Christmas celebration with my cousins, my tribe as I call them, I fell ill to a horrible stomach bug, followed by skin boils, followed by a head and chest cold. It definitely reminded me of Job. But this…

I have not written in a few weeks and this photo is one of the projects I’ve been doing in the meantime. Painting, lettering, jewelry, ink work have all been used to fill my soul. What has made my soul so empty? Once again, I have faced the possible suicide of a client. Rescued by…

My wise friend told me last week that she is going to make a T shirt for me that says, “Be careful what you you say to me. I might blog about you.” This conversation took place after I ranted for a few minutes about thoughtless things people say to cancer patients. I had been…

My dear Amber, Our history is rich with letter writing. A letter for going off to college. A letter when conflicts between us needed the reflection inherent in letter writing. Letter writing when I thought cancer might take me from you while you still needed a mother’s wisdom. And now, I am writing a letter…

Comparison. It is something I see in many aspects of our lives. I even see it in suffering. Sometimes when I am sitting with other breast cancer patients, I hear subtle comparisons between women who have different types of the cancer. One woman said to me, “Oh, I don’t have that kind. I have the…

Those of you that know something about me may recognize that self-promotion is not something I am comfortable with. In fact, I think I’m allergic to it. I get all itchy and scratchy just thinking about it. I just like to let things happen organically, in their own time and in their own way. Shocker!…

It was like slowly, gently unwrapping a piece of glass that had been stored away for decades. With tears running down her face, my client shared a secret that had been inside since she was a young child. I have been seeing this client for several years and she has made amazing progress on her…

I’m sure this week’s blog post will be a bit like playing pinball in the 1970’s because my thoughts are all over the place and can ricochet at a moment’s notice. So here goes… I’ve been thinking a lot about God this week. Last week, I had a client, who also has cancer, sitting on…

My heart sank… At the end of the session, my client had asked if she could purchase a copy of my book from me. Normally, I would be pleased that someone was interested in my book, but this was different. I knew this client was a conservative Christian and was worried that learning I was…

Sometimes I think my brain is totally emptied of any thought I would want to share with other human beings. I wonder if this is the end of writing this blog. And then life happens. Today life happened in my lymphedema support group meeting at the hospital. In case you are not aware of lymphedema,…

My next CT scan, John O’Leary, Pastor Rob’s sermon this morning. Interesting cast of characters to trigger awareness about the rapid passage of time in my life. And yet, in combination, they have done just that. Eight days from now, I will go to the cancer center for my next CT scan. Four days later…