Sailorourlife8 20 15

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle Crystal shop helps restore spirit to hair loss victims.

Page 3

Mind & Spirit

August 20, 2015

August Issue

Plymouth woman focuses on spirituality, Christian history

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Although Ina Barton never felt called to be an ordained minister, spirituality has become one of the main focuses of her retirement.

“I had a long career in corporate America,” said Barton, a 41-year Plymouth resident who worked at Prudential Insurance Co. for 33 years. “But through the years I’ve been drawn to participate in church. I always felt from the late ‘70s that it was an important bulwark in my life and society. I tend to love scripture, and I’ve focused on reading the Bible.”

After her husband died in 2007, Barton went to Luther Seminary to get a master’s degree with a focus on Christian church history and theology. “I’d always wanted to back to school and I was always interested in history,” Barton said. “I told God to use me in any way he wanted, and that’s what happened.”

Prior to retirement, she served as congregation president and taught Sunday school at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove. She also served on many of the boards at the church.

“I’ve always wanted to focus on what it means to love God supremely, to love your neighbor as yourself and to serve God and man,” Barton said.

She’s still active at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, having been a co-facilitator for adult confirmation and organizing Bible study.

“Keeping your mind alive is really, really important,” Barton said. “God

“I’ve always wanted to focus on what it means to love God supremely, to love your neighbor as yourself and to serve God and man.”

Ina Barton of Plymouth focuses on spirituality and church work in her retirement. (Photo by Sue Webber) helps me to keep my brain alive so I am able to worship God in spirit and in truth.”

But now, as a representative of Lord of Life, she also conducts one Sunday

service a month at Good Samaritan Ambassador care center in New Hope.

“I have empathy and sympathy for individuals at Good Samaritan because of [the illnesses of] my mother and hus-

band,” Barton said. “I know how people feel. Whatever I am able to do, it’s God working through me. God is still there at the end of the human experience. He will not desert us.”

With help from two other women – one of whom is a musician – Barton, plans, writes, and conducts the Sunday service at the care center. “Once a subject hits me, I select the scripture and then we pick out special music,” she said.

Regarding the residents and family members who attend the Sunday service, Barton said, “It doesn’t matter what denomination they are. We are all one in Jesus Christ.”

Barton has taken her strong spiritual passion with her on Lord of Life mission projects. For a project in Tanzania, she worked on receiving blankets for babies and brought them to a service at Good Samaritan Ambassador to be blessed.

“I like blankets,” she said.

A native of the Twin Cities, Barton is a graduate of Central High School in BARTON - TO PAGE 3

Page 2 Our Life • Thursday, August 20, 2015

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Our Life • Thursday, August 20, 2015 Page 3

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Barton FROM PAGE 1 Minneapolis. She has an undergraduate degree in English from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich.

Barton has three daughters and five

grandchildren.

“I had some really good role models,” Barton said. “My paternal grandmother was my heroine. She was a wonderful Christian woman. I never saw her angry or upset, even though she was widowed twice, raised five children and lost her

home in the Depression. As a woman in her 50s, she came to the Twin Cities to do housework.

“She never complained. She loved us.

She loved people. She was sweet and good.”

Barton treasures a picture of her

grandmother holding one of Barton’s babies at Christmas time. “It was her first great-grandchild, and she was worried about keeping the baby’s feet warm,” Barton said.

Crystal shop helps restore spirit, self-esteem to hair loss victims

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Twila Donley is a 24/7 advertisement for her life’s work. She’s almost always worn a wig.

“Wigs became a popular fashion statement in the late ‘60s,” she said. “At first it was just for fun.

But I have really thin hair, so I’ve worn one ever since. I learned by trial and error with my own wigs.”

Donley, who has been a beautician for 55 years, owns Fantasia Salon in Crystal. The salon offers a complete array of services, and also has become well known as a place for cancer patients and others to find wigs and hairpieces.

The salon’s work with cancer patients and others from ages 4 to 95 – including many men — who suffer from hair loss has helped to restore the clients’ spirits, self-esteem and confidence in their appearance.

“It’s such a fun part of our business; I love it,” Donley said, adding that the shop has a huge inventory of wigs.

“Most people with long-term hair loss have more than one wig,” she said. “People with cancer have wigs, or bobs they wear under hats. We have hats and turbans, too. There are so many options.

People come in crying and they leave smiling. I Twila Donley specializes in helping people who need wigs or hairpieces. just love what I do.”

Her salon offers makeup at no charge with each didn’t have a clue about owning my own business.” wig they sell. “People are thrilled,” Donley said.

She owned three salons by the time she was 26 Donley also does wig and hairpiece presenta- years old. tions on request at area hospitals, and most re“Being a beautician is my passion,” Donley cently, to dermatologists dealing with patients said. “I’ve always loved it. Even as a kid, I cut my who have Alopecia, a type of hair loss. cousin’s hair.”

She worked at a salon until she was 21 and then, In 1989, when cancer was becoming increasingin November 1962, Donley opened her own shop ly prevalent, Donley visited the oncology departon West Broadway and Irving Avenue North in ments of local hospitals to offer her services in Minneapolis. “Ignorance is bliss,” she said. “I helping patients look and feel better by donning

wigs.

“At first, I wasn’t so well received,” she said.

“The doctors thought people should be glad just to be alive. But their attitudes changed when they found that when people look better, they feel better.”

Since then, Donley’s business has escalated to the sale of between 300 and 500 wigs a year, she said. Her salon, which opened in Crystal in 1980, is preparing to expand by adding another 1,000 square feet of space.

“People are losing hair because of stress, Alopecia, Trichotillomania, hormonal changes, and diet,” Donley said. “We service all kinds of hair loss. People are stressed to the max when they lose their hair. People come here from all over, including outlying states.”

After 55 years in the business, Donley’s work now centers on developing the business, and hiring and training personnel. She credits a “fabulous” staff of 20 employees as crucial in helping to keep up with the requests for help with wigs, hairpieces and hair extensions. Three or four of her staffers are dedicated just to wigs. The others do hair, facials, manicures and pedicures. She has personnel to handle social media and marketing, a well as a finance director and a trainer.

Donley grew up on a farm between Granite Falls and Sacred Heart, Minn. “Once I got into beauty school, I loved it,” she said. “I’ve been able to do my passion my whole life. I have the farm work ethic. We weren’t coddled. We were taught that working was what we were here to do.”

A resident of Golden Valley, Donley has two sons and four grandchildren. “My kids like to tease me about going out in a pine box with my wig on,” she said.

Donley is a member of the American Hair Loss Council.

Page 4 Our Life • Thursday, August 20, 2015

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Bloomington parish nurse helps with medical, spiritual needs

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Doris Acton was living in Chicago in the late ‘80s when she first heard about parish nurses.

The Rev. Granger Westberg, a Lutheran minister in Chicago who later was credited with being a pioneer in holistic care, was talking about ways to bridge the gap between physical care from the medical community and spiritual care through the clergy.

“I met him,” Acton said. “He felt the nursing profession could do that, could walk in both worlds. Nurses within a church community often see the strong physical connection between social, emotional and spiritual and are able to look at the whole continuum.”

In 1998, after moving to Minnesota and completing a parish nurse training program through Concordia University, Acton became a parish nurse, now known as a faith community nurse.

“It works really well for me and my personality,” said Acton, who works at the 750-member Normandale Hylands Methodist Church in Bloomington. The church’s program is under the Park Nicollet umbrella that includes Mount Olivet and Bethlehem Lutheran churches in Minneapolis, Richfield Methodist, and St. John’s Lutheran in Mound.

“There are so many phases to the job: counseling, referrals, education and health advocacy,” Acton said.

“How it’s done is really up to the person who is given the job.”

Because she works in south Bloomington, where the income levels are higher than in some areas, Acton said, “My job is more focused on looking at options for cancer patients, going with people to their doctor’s appointment, or sitting with families while they’re experiencing a crisis. If you’re working in a more urban area, the focus is all different. You’re concentrating on food and shelter needs.”

Every church focuses on its own needs, so it’s important for the parish nurse to listen to the congregation, Acton said. “I’ve been so lucky to be able to be in a faith community where they allow me to do a lot,” said Acton, who has helped with grief support groups and with assistance to new parents. “Normandale has been very supportive of the program and of me.”

Normandale Hylands Church is big on missions, said Acton, who has been a camp nurse on mission trips.

Her mission work took her to Sierra Leone and West Africa in 2004 and she helped start a clinic there in 2007 in collaboration with Africa Uplifted, a nonprofit public charity that supports the people of Sierra Leone in the areas of basic healthcare, primary educa-

Taking a church member’s blood pressure is just one of many skills that are needed for Doris Acton’s job as a faith community nurse at a Bloomington church. tion, essential physical needs, and spiritual nurturing and economic development, according to the organization’s website.

Each day at her job in Bloomington is different, said Acton, who often is helping people find the resources they need to cope with a specific problem. She may be helping someone through a job or housing transition, or researching ways to improve life for a child with a mental health problem or eating disorder.

“My biggest strength is that I really enjoy working with people one-on-one through different transitions in life,” Acton said. “Sometimes people just want you to hear their story. I like to listen to people’s stories.

The biggest part is just being a caring presence.”

She enjoys helping people explore possibilities and look at patterns.

“God always has something in store for you,” Acton said. “We are always called to be relevant, to serve, to

be involved in something. Feeling relevant and continuing to be engaged in life is really important as we get older.”

Church nurses have an active Faith Community Nurse Network in the Twin Cities that develops program, according to Acton. The Park Nicollet program of which she is a part gets together every couple of months, she said. “We learn so much from each other,” Acton said. “It’s nice to have colleagues with similar interests.”

Acton grew up in St. Louis Park, and has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Gustavus Adolphus College and a master’s degree in nursing from Augsburg College. She did critical care hospital nursing until the mid 1980s, working in clinics in Chicago and Eden Prairie.

She and her husband have two daughters and four grandsons.

Our Life â&#x20AC;˘ Thursday, August 20, 2015 Page 5

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Mind and spirit come together as we age I was surprised during a recent conversation with a 94-year-old friend of mine. His wife was dying and he was suffering from brutal back pain himself.

Toward the end of our talk, I asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;What are you feeling emotionally at this point? I thought he might say â&#x20AC;&#x153;angerâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;fearâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;sorrow.â&#x20AC;? Instead, he replied without hesitation in one word, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gratitude.â&#x20AC;? I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expecting that response.

Likewise, I was surprised when I read the reports from several gerontologists who worked extensively with elderly, often terminally ill patients. Without exception, the physicians conveyed that their patients typically had no fear of death. They might fear

of life. The findings concluded that:

Guest column ... by Bob Ramsey the process of dying, but not death itself. Many of the terminally ill under their care came to accept death as a natural part of life and viewed it as merely another transition. I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expecting that kind of report either.

I was also surprised by recent research that shows older people tend to be happier than other age groups; and that, for many people, the senior years are the most satisfying and fulfilling period

â&#x20AC;˘ Older people are more joyful than younger people; â&#x20AC;˘ Seniors experience more positive emotions and fewer negative ones; â&#x20AC;˘ Older adults enjoy more stability and experience fewer vicissitudes in life; and â&#x20AC;˘ Positive emotional experiences peak after 64.

I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expecting those results at all.

So what is it with all

these old people? Why do so many senior citizens seem to arrive at a state of â&#x20AC;&#x153;nirvana,â&#x20AC;? mindfulness, harmony, acceptance and spiritual understanding?

As it turns out, seeking and finding meaning is another gift of aging.

It happens because older adults are finally free from obsessive material ambition and societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relentless pressure to acquire, compete and succeed.

Seniors have more time for reflection and contemplation and are less interested in spending time gathering possessions.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Without exception, the physicians conveyed that their patients typically had no fear of death.â&#x20AC;?

As writer Josiah Polhemus explains, â&#x20AC;&#x153;As I grow older, the outer world of appearances, prestige and perfection lessens and the inner world of imagination, gratitude and tolerance strengthens.â&#x20AC;?

Younger people are compelled to develop what David Brooks calls â&#x20AC;&#x153;resumĂŠ virtuesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; those qualities important to building a career; while older folks concentrate more on developing â&#x20AC;&#x153;eulogy virtuesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the qualities of tolerance and forgiveness that are important for building a life.

It really is true that the older generation can do with less on the outside, because they have more on the inside.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why many seniors achieve a peace

of mind not available to younger people. For them, mind and spirit come together as they age to create a serenity and â&#x20AC;&#x153;wholenessâ&#x20AC;? based on experience, perspective and maturity that their younger counterparts canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t experience until much later.

So maybe aging isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as bad as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cracked up to be. Youth knows a lot. But age understands more. Sorry, Millennials.

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to wait your turn.

Bob Ramsey is a lifelong educator, freelance writer and advocate for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vital Aging.â&#x20AC;? He resides in St. Louis Park and can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or by e-mail at joyrammini@ comcast.net.

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Page 6 Our Life • Thursday, August 20, 2015

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Aromatherapy, guided imagery, acupuncture offer comfort in Fridley

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Peggy Miller has spent most of her career working on social justice causes and social services.

But when she was 40, she made the decision to pursue a new career path. She enrolled in a four-year class to learn acupuncture.

For the last five years, Miller has helped treat clients using the integrative therapies of acupuncture – plus aromatherapy and guided imagery — at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, part of Allina Health at Unity Hospital in Fridley.

“I love working with people at transitions; it’s good to be part of the solution,” Miller said.

It was after she worked with victims of violence for 25 years, then in hospice care, massage therapy and then at a reproductive health center, that she decided on the mid-life career change.

“I’ve never regretted it for a moment,” Miller said. “I love what I do.”

Acupuncture, which involves pricking the skin or tissues with thin needles, originated more than 5,000 years ago in China. The practice is used to alleviate pain and to treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions.

Using integrative, holistic services at the Penny George Institute, Miller works with both inpatients and outpatients, all ages, both men and women. Doctors refer some clients to her; others come on their own. She uses acupuncture primarily, in conjunction with Oriental medicine and essential oils. “I uses guided imagery a lot,” Miller said.

“We see people with every conceivable condition, some ambulatory and some not,” Miller said. “We get a lot of oncology patients, some in acute stages. They really benefit from aromatherapy to treat their nausea.”

She notes that a lot of current medications are derived from plants. Using aromatherapy is simply taking a deep whiff of the essence of the plant.

According to information from Allina Health, this is how aromatherapy works: “The natural ingredients of the essential oils help relax a busy mind, calm stress, help sleep and reduce pain.

“When you smell the aroma, the molecules of the essential oil move from your nose through your body, bringing healing to the places that need it.”

Oils ranging from frankincense, ginger and lavender to mandarin, chamomile, spearmint and sweet marjoram are used to relieve a variety of ills, including pain, anxiety and stress, indigestion, nausea, and headaches.

Guided imagery, according to Allina Health: “uses words and images to help move your attention away from the worry, stress and pain and help you find your

Peggy Miller uses the integrative therapies of acupuncture – plus aromatherapy and guided imagery -- at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, part of Allina Health at Unity Hospital in Fridley. (Photo by Sue Webber) own inner strength and creativity to support healing.”

“Guided imagery is accessing the subconscious that exists all the time,” Miller said. “It’s the background of our conscious brain. You have to eliminate the clutter to go to a quiet pool.”

Hospital patients often find that it helps them to become calm before, during or after a procedure or surgery.

“With inpatients, you establish a quick relationship,” Miller said. “With outpatients I might see someone six, 10 or 12 times. It depends on whatever works. There’s no distinction between the mind, body and spirit. We really treat the whole person. People do experience transformation.”

Each client is evaluated during an initial one-hour visit, she said. For example, she said, “Each headache is completely different. There isn’t just one headache.

My job is to figure out what kind it is.”

Initially, she takes the patient’s pulse; there are nine

in each wrist, she said. Then she looks at the patient’s tongue and listens to the sound of the patient’s voice.

“That gives me an idea of which system is out of whack,” Miller said. “In Chinese medicine, 10 questions are part of the intake. Three of the questions I love are: When did you stop singing? When did you stop laughing? When is the last time you slept well?”

Other questions she might ask include: What did you used to love to do? When did you do it last? What’s standing in your way?

She gives her patients homework, techniques for them to practice. “I want them to have take-home tools,” she said.

Much of the stress she sees in patients is a result of today’s extreme technological society, Miller said.

“People are constantly distracted with iPads and Smart phones,” she said. “They’re working, working, working really fast.”

She suggests that people find “a tiny place” in their lives – even just 5 or 10 minutes a day – to turn off the TV and phone, put their feet flat on the floor, take some deep breaths and just be silent.

“If you do that every day, your health will change,” Miller said. “We are constantly cranked up. The only way to decrank is to turn it all off. Deep breathing is one of the ways to get rid of toxins in the body.”

She practices what she preaches. Miller has been meditating since she was 17.

“Anyone can meditate,” Miller said. “It’s no different than praying, thinking loving thoughts or sending out good wishes.”

She says she has stopped listening to the news on her way home, opting instead for rock and roll music.

“And when I get home, I know my dog will need to go for a walk,” Miller said.

Recharging her own batteries allows her to work effectively with others, Miller said. “One of the requirements in our medicine, since about the sixth century, is ‘Don’t touch another person until you take care of your own chi,’” she said. “That’s a game changer.

When you get out of balance, you aren’t doing anyone any favors.”

A native of Detroit, Miller grew up interested in journalism and English and thought she would be an English professor.

“That’s not what the cards held,” she said. “I loved to write then and I still do. I write poetry, and I journal.”

Miller worked at a small crisis center in Michigan and then came to the Twin Cities in the late ‘70s to take a job in Ramsey County. She worked with the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assaults.

She also has done some teaching at the Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and also at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

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Yoga, acupuncture are highlights at Lakeville shop

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER During her years as a writer and corporate executive, Marcia Appel said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I recognized that I loved business and also had an affinity for what makes people people and what helps them become healthier.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Becoming healthier inside and out was a longtime interest of mine,â&#x20AC;? said Appel, who, with Merry Beth Hovey and Christie Singleton, opened the Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Center in Lakeville in December 2007.

A second site is located in Mendota Heights, and a third will open in Eden Prairie this fall.

Although Appel was used to exercising three to five times a week, she began doing yoga in 2000. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was the first time Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d done something where I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thinking about anything else and I really enjoyed that sensation,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I also lost 30 pounds.â&#x20AC;? She then became interested in nutrition, as well as becoming aware of where her body felt tension and how best to relieve it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a real compassionate side to yoga,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t operate with a drill sergeant and listen to people.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something for everyone. No one feels excluded or odd.â&#x20AC;?

She also discovered that having a place with a plethora of services at one location was a need that â&#x20AC;&#x153;people would resonate to.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wrote a business plan and recruited a couple of partners,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been so exciting.â&#x20AC;?

She now teaches yoga and meditation classes and workshops at the center in Lakeville.

In addition to yoga, the Green Lotus center offers massage therapy, and nutrition and wellness counseling for people of all ages, teens to 90 and beyond, plus classes and workshops. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe in integration of services,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People can explore and expand their awareness of what makes them healthy.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some [clients] come with a specific purpose; some come because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re curious; some have certain goals they want to attain; and some have a problem thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been hard to resolve,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our healers and teachers are trained to work with people from all levels. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal to meet people where theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at, not where the staff wishes they were at.â&#x20AC;?

The center is â&#x20AC;&#x153;a full partner with Western medicine,â&#x20AC;? Appel said, and receives re-

Marcia Appel (left) and Merry Beth Hovey (right) are partners at the Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Center in Lakeville. ferrals from doctors as physicians become more familiar with and accepting of yoga. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Studies have proven the validity of yoga,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Science is on our side now. Science can measure the mind-bodyspirit connection. Every day we hear from someone who feels better, or is more grounded, or whose hip hurts less. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re grateful and humbled.â&#x20AC;?

A native of northwest Iowa, Appel grew up on a farm, got a degree from the University of Minnesota and worked as a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

She helped launch several local magazines over the years, including Twin Cities Woman and Corporate Report, and was executive editor of Twin Cities Magazine before it merged with Mpls. St. Paul. She has served as director of advertising and public relations for a division of Control Data, as senior vice president of The Musicland Group, senior vice president of marketing for American Girl, and chief marketing officer of Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media.

Even with her focus on a new business, Appel said she hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t abandoned writing.

She still writes a blog and a newsletter.

She enjoys walking in the winter and biking and swimming in the summer. She and her husband have a son and a daughter.

Hovey is from the Twin Cities. The two met in 1992, when Appel was at Musi-

cland and then worked at MPR together and became good friends. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Christie has a corporate career,â&#x20AC;? Appel said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since the beginning, she has looked at our challenges and plans objectively.â&#x20AC;?

Marcia Kirk, an acupuncturist at Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Center, originally worked in sales and design. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I worked with builders and for cabinet companies and designers,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really got into feng shui. If you had a room set up to be beautiful and functional you could be effective and functional in that space.â&#x20AC;?

After leaving the design business, Kirk said she awakened to an interest in acupuncture. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I realized that if you could create beauty and functionality in your body you could do whatever in life was important to you,â&#x20AC;? Kirk said.

She went to school full time and earned a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in Oriental medicine from Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in 2005.

Six weeks after her graduation, Kirk was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was quite a shock,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After years of training on the other side of the table, I got to be a patient. I had acupunc-

ture, and that was the rest of my education.â&#x20AC;?

Kirk has undergone specialized training in pain and rehabilitation at the Courage Center and in using acupuncture to enhance outcomes and quality of life during cancer treatment through the SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some people want acupuncture when the seasons change, to get tuned up,â&#x20AC;? Kirk said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some like to stay ahead of digestive problems. Some come when nothing else works, when theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve tried everything.

I see cancer patients, too, who find that it makes a difference in their quality of life.â&#x20AC;?

She had a solo acupuncture practice before becoming an independent contractor at Green Lotus.

Kirk serves on the board of the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Association of Minnesota, and was president in 2012.

A native of Kansas, Kirk and her husband have five grown children and 11 grandchildren, including grandchildren in Hawaii and New Zealand. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We travel with every bit of spare time and dollars we have,â&#x20AC;? she said.

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