Rock Island, IL: In addition to fun learning play for toddlers, the April Play and Grow time at Rock Island Library will feature a special guest speaker on how parents can help toddlers learn at home.

Play and Grow meets at 10:30 am on Thursday, April 9 at the Rock Island 30/31 Branch, 3059 30th Street. Activities help toddlers age three and under talk, sing, play and read their way to early literacy. Chris Kitchen, parent coordinator for the Rock Island County Regional Office of Education, will also speak about the role of parents as a child's first teacher, and offer simple strategies to put a child on the road to literacy.

Play and Grow meets on the second Thursday of each month at the branch. The program is free and open to the public.

Additional information about library events and services is available by visiting www.rockislandlibrary.org, following the library's Facebook and Twitter sites, or by calling 309-732-READ (7323.)

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Founded in 1872, the Rock Island Public Library serves the area through three locations, which include the Main, 30/31 and Southwest Branches, community outreach efforts, and online opportunities that provide resources to enhance personal achievement and stimulate the imagination.

Material Success Doesn't Have To Get In The Way Of Inner Peace, Spiritual Author Says.

It's second nature for many people to toil endlessly to achieve what the world at large considers a successful life.

But success often is fleeting and sometimes requires us to make decisions that aren't in our best interests, says Frank P. Daversa, author of the book "Spirituality in the 21st Century." (www.FrankDaversa.com)

"How many times has a 'successful' person turned down a cherished pleasure or been unable to spend time with family for the sake of a business meeting or a late night at the office?" he asks. "How many influential people have sold their souls to the devil to get where they are?"

Interestingly, highly successful people may not be that out of step with one principle that often defines spirituality - the belief in God or a higher power, Daversa says. Polls regularly reveal that the vast majority of the world's population - better than 80 percent - follows some sort of belief system, so it's likely a large percentage of successful people do as well, Daversa says.

But on a more practical level, there are four other fundamental principles of spiritual enlightenment that may or may not mesh well with what many people would define as success, he says. Those principles are:

•  Complete your formal education. It's difficult to approach enlightenment without understanding how the world works, Daversa says. Indications are that many successful people, though certainly not all, do live up to this principle. In the United States, the households with the highest educational achievement also tend to be the ones with the highest household income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

•  Learn more about yourself, your health and your mental well-being. Self-discovery and self-realization are vital to nurturing our inner selves, Daversa says. Taking care of our physical bodies is equally important. That's a mixed bag for successful people. Some are well developed intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, but many "have difficulty conquering their personal demons," he says. They often are burdened by scandal or experience marital problems. Some even suffer from drug addiction. "You can argue that the general population does as well, but that's the point," Daversa says. "Successful people are no better in this regard."

•  Learn more about the needs of others. Helping our fellow humans places us on a path to self-realization, Daversa says. "To their credit, many wealthy people give generously to charity and create or manage their own charitable foundations," he says. But others are not as giving in critical ways. Many CEOs oppose the minimum wage that would allow their employees to live above the poverty line, he says, and greed led Wall Street bankers to manage investments recklessly, which resulted in the Great Recession and caused millions to suffer. "Apparently, learning more about the needs of others is not a prerequisite for becoming successful," Daversa says.

•  Learn more about the natural environment. Although a bit of a cliché, becoming "one" with nature is one of the most spiritual experiences we can undertake, Daversa says. Because nature and the environment are interconnected, what people do to the environment has spiritual repercussions, he says.  "Many successful people support the environment wholeheartedly, but others do not," Daversa says. "There are those who see the environment as nothing more than an asset on a spreadsheet that they can exploit to their financial advantage."

"This is not to say we shouldn't pursue success if it comes our way," Daversa says. "But we need to keep the concept of success in perspective to other important attributes in life.

"We need to enjoy success while it lasts and refrain from defining ourselves in terms of it. We need to continue finding significance in simple pleasures, such as love, family and friendships."

Frank P. Daversa

Frank P. Daversa, raised in South Hempstead, NY, has led an eclectic life with work and interests that have included computer programming, writing and spirituality. He earned his A.A.S. degree in data processing from Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY, and a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and information processing from SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY. Two years after earning his B.S. degree, Daversa moved to Houston. He worked for a number of years in the corporate world before becoming a writer in 2007. He published his first web article on spirituality in 2008, and his first book in 2011. He published his second book in 2012. Daversa contracted a serious illness in 1997, prompting him to begin a spiritual journey that eventually inspired him to write his latest book, "Spirituality in the 21st Century" (www.FrankDaversa.com).

Why Your Doctor Left Town In A Huff; Contracts Often Limit Where Physicians Can Work If They Change Employers

Patients may just shrug when they learn their doctor plans to move to a new office.

After all, they can just follow, right?

Maybe not. Or at least, not easily.

Physician contracts often contain restrictive covenants that limit where doctors can work if they leave their current practices. The idea is to keep them from competing with their old employer.

For example, the contract could require the doctor's new office to be 15 or more miles away. The doctor also might have to give up privileges at the local hospital.

"These contract provisions hold numerous traps for the unwary," says Dennis Hursh, an attorney who has provided legal services to physicians for more than three decades and is the author of "The Final Hurdle: A Physician's Guide to Negotiating a Fair Employment Agreement." (www.TheFinalHurdle.com)
Patients can be left scrambling to find a new physician.

The situation can be even worse for the doctor, who essentially might have to start his or her career over again, building a new patient base.

Hursh says it's not unusual for him to answer desperate phone calls from doctors who paid little attention when they agreed to their contracts, but now wonder whether their soon-to-be-former employers can enforce the restrictions.

"Unfortunately, they probably can," he says.

Doctors need to be diligent and negotiate favorable terms before they sign an employment contract, he says. Hursh says there are several ways to deal with restrictive covenants so that doctors are not facing career-damaging situations.

•  Keep the distance reasonable. Although geographic restrictions are common, in most cases the agreement should not require the doctor's new office to be more than five miles from the old one. In rural areas, a somewhat larger area may be reasonable, Hursh says.
Also, when employers have multiple offices, the distance rule should apply only to the office where the doctor spent most of his or her working time.

•  The general practice of medicine should not be restricted. "It's one thing to agree that patients will have to drive five miles from your old office if they want to continue seeing you," Hursh says. "It's another thing to agree you won't see patients in hospitals, nursing homes or ambulatory surgical centers that are within the prohibited area."

•  Continuing the doctor-patient relationship. Patients often become attached to a particular doctor and want to stick with him or her. But when a doctor moves to a new practice that can get tricky.

Contracts usually prohibit doctors from directly asking their patients to follow them to the new practice, Hursh says. Barring such solicitation, whether it's in the office or by phone call or letter, is reasonable, he says. But advertisements by the doctor's new employer should not be considered direct solicitation.

•  Sometimes restrictions should not apply. If an employer fires a doctor without cause, then the restrictive covenant should not go into effect, Hursh says. That's also true if the employer breaches its agreement with the doctor, although that can be difficult to negotiate, he says.

"An employer could worry the physician will claim some far-fetched theory of an alleged breach to get out of the restriction," he says. "One way to deal with that might be to list specific grounds for a breach in the contract."

Hursh says one of the most extreme cases he ever experienced involved a doctor whose non-compete clause prohibited the practice of medicine within 65 miles.

A hospital 62 miles away wanted to hire him.

It was while negotiating a contract with the hospital that Hursh and the hospital's attorney discovered the restriction.

"The restriction was so ludicrous that we both agreed that the former employer would almost certainly lose if they tried to sue," Hursh says.
But the hospital figured: why take chances.

The offer to hire the doctor was withdrawn.

About Dennis Hursh

Dennis Hursh has been providing health-care legal services for more than three decades. Since 1992, he has been managing partner of Hursh & Hursh, P.C., www.PaHealthLaw.com, a Pennsylvania law firm that serves the needs of physicians and medical practices. He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, where he is involved in the Physician Organizations Practice Group.