A collection of short stories, poems, and postcards that range from the amusingly playful to the provocatively thoughtful.  The underlying theme is triumph through focused effort and mutual support over the life crises that all of us must face  The stories are presented in a bite-sized format and are designed to appeal to the palates of mature adults who have had some difficult life experiences of their own.  The book is divided into several segments.  It begins with Reflections, a short collection of personal reveries and inspirational tracts, that establishes the theme for what follows.  A Cats’ Tale is a series of stories about the adventures and idiosyncracies of the family pets that begins with the story of Sparky, The Christmas Cat.  Next comes Snippets which chronicles the greater and lesser adventures of a couple who found each other after stumbling, unsuccessfully, through their first marriages and who strive through their own trial and error experiments to create a happy life together.  Relationship Survival Kit, that follows, is a humorously presented set of “do’s” and “don’ts” for couples in committed relationships.  Finally, Myths That Maim cautions us about the hidden pitfalls of a mindless, bumper sticker-approach to life.

Frank Losik has been a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist for over sixteen years.  He is an experienced problem-solver who specializes in working with clients who are temporarily overwhelmed by some sort of life crisis.  He has worked with a wide variety of clients in many different settings from private practice to state prisons to at-risk high school students.    He began his study of counseling and psychology while working through his own personal crises of divorce, career change, custodial and non-custodial parenting, step-parenting, and remarriage.   He strives to achieve two goals with his clients: the first is to relieve their current pain and suffering; the second is to empower them to develop the skills to resolve future problems on their own.

“Hello, Mrs. Bear, I see you are here this afternoon to schedule your hysterectomy, right?”  The casually tossed out words of the hyper-perky nurse slammed into Bernah’s consciousness with the full force of a high speed, run away locomotive and sent her reeling for a moment. 

“What?”  The word slipped involuntarily from her lips.  Her mind began to race; her pulse quickened noticeably.  That “oh, no, here we go again”, out of control, sinking feeling started to grab hold of her.  She wasn’t prepared for this.  The nurse practitioner had led her to believe that the fibroid tumor that was growing inside her uterus could be handled easily without any sort of invasive medical procedure.  “Calm down.  Breathe.  Breathe,” her experienced inner voice commanded her.  She inhaled deeply and  managed to gain control of herself just before her emotions went crashing over the edge of the abyss.

At another, earlier point in her life she might have allowed herself to be swept along by the authoritative pronouncements of the medical profession, but not today.  Bernah had become a seasoned campaigner in the female, health care wars.  “They don’t call it ‘practicing medicine’ for nothing,” she reminded herself.  “I need to discuss this matter in detail with the doctor before I agree to any sort of surgery.  I’m in the information gathering mode.  I don’t have to make a decision today!”

Bernah’s following discussion with the doctor pursued a most interesting path.  It started with his recommending a hysterectomy, his specialty.  When Bernah demurred, it detoured toward a procedure for removing only the tumor by going in through the navel area (another surgeon’s specialty).  It  ended with his observing that since the tumor was, after all, benign,  one of her options was to do nothing at all.  Bernah marveled at the facility with which the doctor moved logically and dispassionately from option to another. 

His insensitivity to her feelings reached its zenith during the consultation when he offered the option of “roller-balling” which involved scraping the lining of the uterus.  Bernah felt herself tense up and sit bolt upright in her chair at the callous description.  “I wonder how he would react if someone told him that he would have to have his penis roller-balled,” she speculated.  She prudently kept her thoughts to herself.  “One mustn’t upset the surgeon, you know!”