Saturday, July 24, 2010

Favorite Things

Since my last,whiny posting about a bad picture I've done an attitude adjustment by making a list of favorite things that don't have a thing to do with how I look, but make me feel young and healthy and happy.
  • Faith practices
  • Family
  • Volunteering
  • Browsing a farmers market on a mild summer day
  • Some faces on Ashton Drake dolls
  • Exercising to DVDs or walking.
  • Working a 12 hour shift occasionally.
  • Listening to a music DVD put together by a young niece--and actually enjoying the songs.
  • Lily the cat
  • Books

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Older and Growing


"Older and growing"
Flickr image by sebpaquet

My current musings started with a picture sent by a friend.  A picture of me, to be exact.  A picture that challenged both my best images of myself and the good intentions of my friend  for folding it into a remembrance of scenes from a recent reunion.  In other words, she sent it out to lots of people.
When I scanned Flickr images to find one that fit my mood, this image caught my eye.  The title caught my fancy.  Growing how?  Growing what?  Older, certainly.  Growing wise and well?  Not so much right now.  Another Flickr image caught my eye.  http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=growing+older&l=4#page=2


Would an unflattering photograph ruin the day of a mature person?  I'm going to allow it to ruin a few
minutes --not the whole day, mind you, but long enough to grieve a certain fond, fading image held in my mind of what I look like. 

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Healing Stories

Roller coaster week for family nurse.  Sister with total knee replacement surgery has an up and down recovery.    Local nurses gearing up for strike suddenly settle their contract.  I had expected to be transitioning in replacement nurses at my hospital right now.  Instead--thankfully--I'm blogging.

To pass the hours spent in the hospital waiting and watching, of course I brought a book, a treasure found at a yard sale for a quarter:  Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen M.D.  It was the subtitle that caught my eye, Stories That Heal.  I seldom read a book twice (so many books, so little time) and I've started through this one again.  I just liked the way I felt when I read it.  It was also thought provoking for this wisdom seeker.
Here's a sample (p 39) One of the blessings of growing older is the discovery that many of the things I once believed to be my shortcomings have turned out to be my strengths, and other things of which I was unduly proud have revealed themselves in the end to be my shortcomings.  I've long known that my strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin, and this idea puts a new spin on the coin toss. 
The author works extensively with cancer survivors, but her book has a lot to say to all of us.