Author + Artist + Editor
I’ve planned to participate in Nanowrimo every year, well, for years. Work always gets in the way. Not this year! My account is set, initial word count added. The clock starts today! If you’re participating, let’s be buddies. And good luck to us all! I’m excited to …
I’m stoked about the release of Nightmares of Strangers: An Anthology of Eerie, Strange, and Spooky Stories coming October 22. It was so much fun writing “The Costume” and bringing the dead to life, so to speak. Each story brings it own helping of horrors …
At one point or another, most of us have encountered some form of bully in our lives. Some bullies are more subtle than others. You know the kind: the “I’m just joking” or “I just want to help” bully. Add the workplace in the mix and being a victim can quickly turn into a living nightmare.
As someone who experienced workplace bullying in a past job, I found several vignettes represented some elements of “my bully”—a bully whose actions were disguised form of friendship. I appreciate the insight Curry offers, but even more, I appreciate the advice she provides and the credit to outside sources that support her discussions.
Not everyone can simply quit their job to get away from a bully, and Curry understands this. Part of the book discusses what to look for and what to do if you find yourself in a workplace where you can’t leave. The book also includes a section to help the reader “Discover Your Conflict Style and the Approach that’s Right for You.” Curry has included a blank chart for the reader to assist the reader in creating his or her own game plan—a useful inclusion whether the reader’s plans including leaving or staying in their current workplace.
Collectively, the sections in this book are well-written and highly informative. I can see this being a help to the individual reader and would work well as a resource for companies in their training programs.
They used to steal your lunch money and throw spit wads at you on the bus. Now they roam around from the boardroom to the break room looking to manipulate, intimidate, and humiliate—and eventually ruin your career! Beating the Workplace Bully is your ammunition for fighting back. Whether the bully is a boss or a coworker, this empowering guide will help you recognize what has been causing you to become a victim, then reveals how to:
Complete with exercises, assessments, and real-life examples, this personal coaching program will help you reclaim your power and defeat the office bully once and for all!
Find out more about Lynne Curry here: https://workplacecoachblog.com/coaches/
I hope everyone is healthy and staying safe in these crazy times. I’ve been self-isolating with my dogs and cat. My sister is the only person I’ve visited since the first of March. I miss my children and grandchildren! Crafting with my sister is always …
From mixed feelings to a case of whiplash and ultimate relief. MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars I Am Mother (2019) – A teenage girl is raised by a robot designed to repopulate Earth. Their bond is tested when a stranger arrives with alarming …
I moved my personal blog from Blogger to WP, y’all! I’m in the process of revamping it, so you’ll see some old (like OLD) posts in the meantime. I’m hurrying!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
I seriously wonder about people sometimes… I think most people will agree that instructions (or in publishing: guidelines) exist for a reason. So, why are some people determined to go against them? What am I ranting about? Unsolicited attachments in email messages. I just do …
Well, dear readers o’ my blog, I’ve enjoyed some much needed down time. Christmastime is the best, isn’t it! The smells, the decorations, family and friends, and most of all celebrating Christ’s birth. It reminds me of an Avalon song telling us “don’t save it …
As I began reading Kim West’s Peaceful Passage I have to admit I was emotionally transported to the past. 
The full title of Kim’s book is what lured me to want –no have– to read it; even before I had read the summary.
Peaceful Passage.
In the corner of my mind, where the best and worst of memories are neatly tucked, Kim’s words rang loudly. With each word I relived my mother’s own end-of-life journey in 2006, all the while wishing that I had had Kim’s book during those heart-wrenching days. Sadly, my sister and I (and our combined seven children) were not able to share a the end-of-life journey as depicted in Kim’s book. After years battling the evil cancer and enjoying almost a year being cancer-free, my mother received the horrible news: the cancer had returned.
The following week chemo treatments began –again. On the third day of the first week, her experience with the chemo and the horrendous pain tore our hearts out. Massive doses of morphine did nothing to even slightly ease the pain. The fourth day of the first week as a fairly good day. She ate (something she rarely wanted to or could do). The fifth day was a nightmare. The pain was back, a full vengeance against her body –and her will.
I remember her saying aloud, “Lord, if it is going to get worse than this, I won’t be able to take it.”
Later that same day (the fifth day) my sister and I were told that she “might” have eight months. She died almost two hours later. While my family was with her throughout her battle, we were not able to experience the end-of-life journey in the same sense as what one expects with a hospice setting. Still, so many of the struggles and trials Kim writes about are similar to what we experienced.
Whether you have a loved one who is currently in the last stages of life, or even if you’ve already had to say goodbye, Peaceful Passage is more than a helpful read. Sure, it opened some emotions that I thought were already resolved, but I found that by the end of the book I had experienced the emotions that lead to a real, lasting healing process that I seemed to have been deprived six years ago.
Readers will appreciate Kim’s sharing of her personal experience with her mother’s at-home end-of-life journey. I know I did. I also found the resource listing and journal areas beneficial –even today.
Terminal illness takes so much out of the patient and the family. Having access to resources such as Peaceful Passage gives insight and fosters strength in times when even the slightest ounce of strength seems out of reach. I can see this book as a source for individual and their families, but it also has everything needed to become a trusted and recommended resource by doctors, therapists, and hospice organizations.
About the author: Kim West holds a PhD in Clinical Pastoral Counseling and a M.Div. in Counseling and Family, but when her own mother became ill with terminal cancer she found that she had no hands-on knowledge of how to take care of her.
As a counselor she knew to journal her own experience to help her process her grief at losing her mother and she knew how to help her mother finish her life well and be prepared for the life to come. But the day-to-day of taking care of her mother as she died would require learning a whole new set of caring skills. And learn she did.
After completing her own journey with her mother she knew she had to help others who would travel this same path. Peaceful Passage is a merging of her years of counseling experience and the new skills she learned caring for her mother combined with her heart to help and to heal.
Learn more about Kim at: http://www.peaceful-passage.com/about-the-author.html
Kim’s website: http://www.peaceful-passage.com/
Kim on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peacefulpassage
Book Details:Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: New Heart Publishing; 1st edition (September 10, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0984052666
ISBN-13: 978-0984052660
Everyone has “one of those days” every once in a while. Well, I’ve had several of “those days” here lately. The Mississippi heat and humidity is draining. The humidity makes it feel like 105 instead of the 99 degrees reported on most of the regional …
