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.

New York by Wheelchair

Flickr image by man pikin

Just back from the promised trip to New York for my high school graduate niece--previous post 6/5.  We had a great time.  Our hotel, Four Points Sheraton Midtown Times Square lived up to its promise of a wheelchair accessible room with roll in shower.  We were within easy walking distance to great restaurants and Times Square and the theatre district and Rockerfeller Center.   New York isn't great for wheelchair accessibility, especially restaurants and some shopping.  Nice people helped us into the restaurants, many of which had a step into them.  Ashley uses a manual wheelchair.  It would have been a lot harder for someone in a motorized wheelchair.
The highlight of the trip was a guided tour by Family In New York.  I found it on the internet and we had a big, tasty bite of the Big Apple.  We especially enjoyed Central Park and the Staten Island Ferry, but we were out for a full nine hours.  As a bonus, we learned how to get around by subway, bus, and cab.
And where did we go?  Greenwich Village for one.  Do you know what's on the corner of Bedford and Grove in Greenwich Village?  I didn't have a clue, but Ashley knew--the apartment building featured in the Friends TV series.  We saw it and explored Washington Square Park--another Friends haunt--on a sunny, Sunday evening when we could even imagine ourselves living in New York.
Ashley and I were amused because I'm usually mistaken for her grandmother, but on this trip I was twice identified as 'Mom'.  Either she's looking older or I'm looking younger.
My sister and her daughter came with us.  Lately, I've traveled with people my own age.  Going with these young people helped us get our money's worth big time.  After that nine hour tour, I might have chosen to hole up in bed with room service and a book.  The girls got us up and going to a distant--we now knew how to use the subway--restaurant, and we had a late night jaunt to Times Square.

Jumble

The present week has been a jumble of events.  I work casual part time for the hospital that employed me for 30 years.  Yesterday, our nurses staged a one day strike.  I helped with handoffs between our nurses and the replacement nurses, and then did documentation support for the replacements.  I had a little trepidation about how things would go when our nurses returned.  Would they be angry?  The news media had showcased examples of militant nurses on the picket lines.

I needn't have worried.  The replacement nurses went down the back elevator and the hospital's own nurses came up the front.  I got tears in my eyes when I saw them and was moved to greet them warmly.  "We're glad to see you too," they called.  There will be hard days ahead for all of us, but in the end we're a team of professionals working in a respect-based culture.  I pray that we can listen to and hear each other over the coming weeks.  In years past, I was a member of the management negotiating team.  I'm glad I'm on the sidelines now, helping where I can.

A book I've been reading suggests that I would be in a better position to negotiate now than in years past--that wisdom idea again.  I think I've mentioned that A Course In Miracles has influenced my thinking, though I don't consider myself a formal student of the course.  Several well known authors have been influenced by the course also.  One of them is Marianne Williamson, and I've been reading her book The Age of Miracles.  I particularly relate to the prayers she has scattered through the pages, one of which reads in part:...Show me how to use my gifts well, and how to pass them on. (p82)

Graduation Day

One of the students graduating from high school tonight is very special to me.  Almost 10 years ago, I got a call from family vacationing in Florida.  "We've been in a terrible accident.  Please come."  When I and a brother and sister arrived in Florida, our brother was in ICU in one hospital, our 8 year old niece was in ICU in another hospital and our 3 year old nephew was in surgery.  Our sister-in-law, who had been driving, greeted me with, "I almost killed my whole family."  She had been driving the car, and though the accident wasn't her fault, she kept trying to think of ways it could have been avoided.
Ashley, my niece, was permanently paralyzed as a result of the accident.  The fact that it was permanent was hard to accept.  Toward the end of her rehab, about six months after the accident, we went to Shriners hospital in Chicago for a second opinion.  There, our high hopes were dashed in no uncertain terms by a no nonsense team of doctors.  Stunned, we got in a cab and, as we had promised Ashley, went to the American Girl doll store.  You can imagine Mom and Aunt and an 9 year old girl in a wheelchair turned loose in the American Girl doll store after news like that!
Ashley's journey to this graduation day hasn't been easy and the whole family is proud of her accomplishments.  She went to her prom, and her glowing report included the fact that she, "Danced all night."  hmmm
My graduation gift will fulfill promise made during the first hospitalization back in Tampa--a trip to New York City.  (She says she doesn't remember anything from that hospitalization, but she's never forgotten the New York promise.)

Prayer for Loved Ones

Most mornings I start the day by reading the Unity Publication Daily Word (available by subscription & at http://www.dailyword.com/. )  The prayer for Wednesday May 26 is a keeper!  It reads in part,
     ...I pray that at the start of your day, you are filled with confidence and energy, ready to
        experience a day of accomplishment and meaning.  I pray that tonight as you lay your
        head on your pillow, ready for sleep, you have peace about the day that is ending and
        expectation of good for the new day to come.  And so it is.  Amen

Good Choices

Estaquio Santimano

The outcome of the previous 3 Gs is meant to be good choices.  Maybe mindful choices is a more descriptive term.  I find it easier to be mindful about the big choices.  They're like a course plotted on my life map.  I weigh my options carefully.  This turn?  Across that valley?  How long will the trip take?  Is this the right destination?
If big choices are the map, little choices make up the territory.  Little choices like fluttering butterfly wings that disturb the air, even rattle the map.  Not so long ago I made a good choice, a mindful choice about my cat Pearl.  I would go one more round with her latest symptoms, but if she didn't respond I would know it was time to let her go. 
Respond is a fine map concept, but the matching territory isn't easy terrain.  Anyway, Pearl and I stumbled along too long before I realized we'd arrived at our destination.  Last night, in that state between wake and sleep, I felt her creep along my back and gently tap my head with her paw.  I hope she's forgiven me for waiting so long to get her to a better place.

Global Thinking

Global thinking is all about taking the long view in matter both large (the earth) and small (actions in the moment).  Recent studies seem to show that the brain circuits that support this kind of thinking don't develop fully until a person is about 25.  That suggests to me that the ears of young people are important pathways to common sense.  The young ears that I speak into respond better to questions than answers.  "Have you thought about how that might affect...Has anything like that happened before?" 
My own global thinking blind spot has to do with the effects of my comments on others.  I've heard the question Would you rather be right than loved?  My heart knows a different answer than my mouth.
Each evening I've been reading a chapter of Richard Carlson's Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, then trying to live that chapter the next day