Janice Post-White, Author at Janice Post-White

I Try Not to Have Any (As Many) Expectations
I Try Not to Have Any (As Many) Expectations

Books, Expectations, Health, Letting Go

I Try Not to Have Any (As Many) Expectations

I try not to have expectations for the book’s success, but authors write to be read. I have learned, however, to let go of outcomes I can’t control. Letting go of expectations allows us to be present in the moment. Friends ask me how my book, Standing at Water’s Edge, is selling now that it has been out in the world for a few months. “I don’t really know,” I say. And it’s true. From what I understand, publishers share sales data (through royalty checks) once or twice a year. Amazon shares ranking data, but you can’t put a number on that. I have a paid subscription to NPD BookScan through Publishers Marketplace, so I can [...]

Janice Post-White2022-03-26T21:32:02-04:00March 26th, 2022|Categories: Books, Expectations, Health, Letting Go|Tags: Expectations, Goals, Illness, Letting go, Priorities|

From Fear to Hope: How Cancer Research Makes a Difference
From Fear to Hope: How Cancer Research Makes a Difference

Cancer, Childhood Cancer, Families, Hope, Uncategorized

From Fear to Hope: How Cancer Research Makes a Difference

Valentine’s Day reminds us to show our love to one another. International Childhood Cancer Day, the day after, reminds us of how much love our children bring into our lives, and how much fear and anxiety we feel when they get sick. Losing a child is a parent’s worst fear. Watching your child endure months or years of scary and invasive treatment and debilitating side-effects obliterates the childhood we expect and want them to have. We all want the best for our children. Criss Angel, Las Vegas illusionist and magician, faces fear every day when he performs with fire and gravity-defying stunts but says that nothing compares to the fear of losing his son to cancer. [...]

Janice Post-White2022-02-14T22:17:55-05:00February 13th, 2022|Categories: Cancer, Childhood Cancer, Families, Hope, Uncategorized|Tags: Cancer Research, Criss Angel, Hope, International Childhood Cancer Day, Leukemia, survivorship|

Tastes Like Joy
Tastes Like Joy

Childhood, Life Lessons, Play

Tastes Like Joy

Imagine you are 10 years old again. You peer into the future and see yourself now. What do you think about who you have become? What does your 10-year-old self perceive as your strengths? Your weaknesses? You might consider your physical health/condition, where you live, or what you do and how you do it. This is the reverse exercise of “what would you tell your former self.” Instead, think like a child. What does your child-self see in you as the adult they envisioned becoming? What surprises them? This exercise was a prompt in a week-long writing intensive last week—virtual, of course.* The purpose was to get us writing, creating new material. It’s also an opportunity [...]

Janice Post-White2022-02-02T15:29:46-05:00January 31st, 2022|Categories: Childhood, Life Lessons, Play|Tags: Creating, Goals, joy, Memories, Writing|

Here Comes Another Year, but Not a New Year: How to Make Yours Happy
Here Comes Another Year, but Not a New Year: How to Make Yours Happy

2022, COVID-19, Pandemic, Uncategorized

Here Comes Another Year, but Not a New Year: How to Make Yours Happy

As the holiday season winds down and 2021 exhales its last breath, we look ahead to 2022. With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 exploding across the entire United States and many other countries, however, 2022 doesn’t feel like progress or offer a whole lot of happiness. It’s another year, but not a new year. The imprints of 2020 and 2021 cling like droplets on our masks—invisible when we ignore them, debilitating when they invade. How are you protecting your body and nourishing your spirit? As we reflect—yet again—on the upheaval in our daily lives, the relentless cycles of loss, and the uncertainty for tomorrow, can’t we also seek the flickering flame deep within our solar plexus? [...]

Janice Post-White2021-12-31T08:53:08-05:00December 31st, 2021|Categories: 2022, COVID-19, Pandemic, Uncategorized|Tags: Compassion, COVID-19, Hope, joy, New Year|

Standing at Water’s Edge – Again
Standing at Water’s Edge – Again

Book, Cancer, Pandemic, Resilience

Standing at Water’s Edge – Again

Shutterstock by Jayakumar As the Omicron coronavirus variant precipitously surfaces in South Africa, Hong Kong, Europe, and the Middle East, our global collective once again finds ourselves standing at water’s edge and wondering where the heck the horizon ends and the living begins. As my memoir, Standing at Water’s Edge, launches out into the world this week, I am reminded of how derailed we can feel by the uncertainty and loss of control as we face yet another new and potentially virulent variant. This recurrent narrative isn’t a sci-fi story; it’s yet another reminder to face our fears, let go of our expectations, and pay attention to the moment. But how? It starts [...]

Janice Post-White2021-11-28T11:07:02-05:00November 28th, 2021|Categories: Book, Cancer, Pandemic, Resilience|Tags: book, childhood cancer, Omicron, pandemic, pay attention to the moment, Standing at Water's Edge|

What books are you reading this month? How do you choose?
What books are you reading this month? How do you choose?

Books, Pandemic, Resilience

What books are you reading this month? How do you choose?

Photo by author October is National Book Month, and NaNoWriMo starts November 1. I thought it was just me who had books on my mind. October's Hot New Releases Have you read any new fall book releases? So many highly anticipated books, including Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land and Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway. Both books follow the authors’ award-winning success of All the Light We Cannot See (Doerr, 2014) and one of my all-time favorites, A Gentleman in Moscow (Towles, 2016). All the Light We Cannot See won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, spent almost four years on The New York Times Bestseller List, and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. Netflix is [...]

Janice Post-White2021-10-31T17:18:32-04:00October 31st, 2021|Categories: Books, Pandemic, Resilience|Tags: books, Cloud Cuckoo Land, COVID-19, Oh William!, Perspective, The Lincoln Highway|

Standing at Water’s Edge: Reflecting on the Past, Paying Attention to the Present
Standing at Water’s Edge: Reflecting on the Past, Paying Attention to the Present

Childhood Cancer, Families, Resilience

Standing at Water’s Edge: Reflecting on the Past, Paying Attention to the Present

Years after my son completed treatment for leukemia, I stood at the ocean shore as dusk descended with unexpected swiftness. Blackness blanketed the bay, and I felt the same fear and isolation I'd experienced that first fretful night in the hospital. I peered into the darkness, expecting the horizon to orient me, searching for the line demarcating sky and water, insight and perspective, when suddenly the waves surged up over my knees, throwing me off balance. In my determined effort to find a beacon, I'd forgotten to pay attention to the moment. (adapted, Standing at Water's Edge: A Cancer Nurse, Her Four-Year-Old Son and the Shifting Tides of Leukemia). It's easy to get wrapped up in [...]

Janice Post-White2021-09-21T21:19:41-04:00September 21st, 2021|Categories: Childhood Cancer, Families, Resilience|Tags: childhood cancer, parenting, resilience, Standing at Water's Edge, survivorship|

As the Seasons Change, So Must We
As the Seasons Change, So Must We

COVID-19, Life Lessons, Reflections, SARS-CoV-2, Summer

As the Seasons Change, So Must We

Photo by author So, how was your summer? Did you get away from your routines and responsibilities and do something you enjoy? Or were you happy to stay home and catch up on projects that felt good after they were finished, if not necessarily enjoyable in the process? Perhaps some of each. Alas, the iconic Minnesota State Fair end-of-summer-get-together started this week, meteorological summer ends August 31, and kids are getting ready to go back to school and college. Well, some kids, at some schools, in some states. With all the pandemic uncertainty of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, who knows what rules schools will institute (and parents will concur with) over the next [...]

Janice Post-White2021-08-29T17:02:58-04:00August 29th, 2021|Categories: COVID-19, Life Lessons, Reflections, SARS-CoV-2, Summer|Tags: COVID-19, Goals, Memories, Seasons of life, Summer fun, Thankful|

Looking Back, Moving Forward; Cleaning Out, Letting Go
Looking Back, Moving Forward; Cleaning Out, Letting Go

Expectations, Letting Go, Psychology

Looking Back, Moving Forward; Cleaning Out, Letting Go

Shutterstock by Maren Winter; Desperate woman behind stacks of binders and flying papers What clutters your office or basement? Are your files electronic or paper? Letting go of the past creates space for the new. Cleaning out my office was one of my summer goals. After twenty years of working from home, I want to paint, get a new desk, and be able to navigate my space without assaulting my fragile shins on file boxes stacked three deep. I don’t mind organized clutter; I know where everything is; I just can’t access it easily. And now that my memoir is coming out (date still pending), I want space—in [...]

Janice Post-White2021-07-30T15:32:17-04:00July 30th, 2021|Categories: Expectations, Letting Go, Psychology|Tags: Attachment, Creating new, Goals, Letting go, Memories|

Change Is In the Air
Change Is In the Air

COVID-19, Hope, Play, SARS-CoV-2, Summer

Change Is In the Air

It’s summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, almost half of Americans are fully vaccinated, and we’re ready to play. Is there fun in your future? Photo by Jess Zoerb on Unsplash Happy Summer Solstice and Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads! It’s Midsummer, and for the first time in many years in the upper Midwest, it feels as if summer really is in full swing. The temp has been in the upper 90s, the grass and fields are parched, and people are cramming the airports and snatching up last-minute cabin and rental car reservations. Or so I’ve heard from family and friends. What plans do you have for this northern hemisphere glorious summer? [...]

Janice Post-White2021-06-19T23:14:09-04:00June 19th, 2021|Categories: COVID-19, Hope, Play, SARS-CoV-2, Summer|Tags: Hermit crab essay, moving on after covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, Summer fun, Summer Solstice|

About Janice Post-White