Estoy tomando un descanso, regreso pronto!

(Taking a break, will be back soon! In the meantime, enjoy a message from our guest blogger!)

Psalm 31:24 : Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

Hope is an amazing thing, some things we hope for are well within our expectations, others, like hoping you’d be invited to do a guest blog post on one of the internet’s top sites – well that’s beyond the hope of this writer.

But here we are so I will speak of hope.

January ends tomorrow and January is all about beginnings – a New Year, new resolutions, planning, looking toward longer days and Spring sun shine, graduations, Summer vacations, new jobs, and births, and …. well, you name it.

We don’t approach January thinking about endings – that’s what December was for, and beginnings are really all about hope. We hope for a myriad of all things possible. Even resolutions (remember you made those about 30 days ago) are full of hope – healthier, kinder, better, and all filled with hope.

At times in life we take steps – submit an application, take an exam, ask someone for help, take music lessons when you’ve never played an instrument or read a line of music, decide to move to a new city when it would be safer to stay at home, go to school in a foreign country instead of the next county, always looking to that change with a measure of anxiousness in our chest, yet hope within our heart.

But hope makes the unknown result achievable. We have hope so we risk rejection, discomfort, sadness at leaving someplace or out and out failure –knowing if nothing else I’ll have the lessons and experience, at least something to sooth the humiliation.

Hope is a great thing – it is no mystery why it’s listed as one of the 3 greatest. Self-sacrificing love is the greatest of course, but think about it, doesn’t hope enable such love?

So, as the beginning month ends, I’d invite you to ponder hope and all the goodness it can hold for our expectations of the coming year.

I’d like to end with perhaps my favorite poem (and a thanks to Christy for letting me experience something I’d never imagine to hope for – a guest blog post):

"Hope" is the thing with feathers - (314)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me

Emily Dickinson

         

Estoy abierto a nuevas experiencias.

When I was a medical student I had a bad habit that took me a very long, long time to break. Crossing my arms. While in Illinois this month and enjoying the winter landscape of Illinois prairie turned farmland, I was reminded of it.  Open and exposed.

 No one ever told me not to cross my arms. It was more a subconscious internal argument.
On one hand: As a student, 9 times out of 10 you are standing in the background. Not saying anything, nor really doing anything. Crossing my arms was comfortable, plus it gave me something to do. What was my other option? Leave them hang at my sides? Well, that just looks ridiculous??
On the other hand: Disinterested. Closed-off. Unapproachable. Bored. Mad/Angry. Disagreeable. There is a barrier between me and the world.

Leaving oneself wide open is hard.  It is difficult to freely allow a patient's complaints or a superior's verbal correction access to oneself with nothing to hold onto and no protection.  Even if it is just yourself you're holding onto and protected by the invisible wall you've created in front of yourself.

You'll never see me with crossed arms in a hospital any more. Once in awhile, outside of the hospital, I may indulge and snuggle up behind my invisible wall.  But truely.. If leaving myself open means a patient can more easily trust me, it's worth it.  If leaving myself open means my senior has confidence I understand and am capable, it's worth it. If leaving myself open means access to experiences and education opportunities otherwise eluded, it's worth it.

There's a lot that can be said for leaving oneself Open. Exposed. and Beautiful.

Much Love.

Estoy cuidando a mis sobrinos.

 "Birthday cake for me.  Birthday cake for you."

Little Lincoln requires snuggles whenever he wakes up!

Little Lincoln enjoyed pulling the Christmas balls off the tree.

Hello?  Hello?

Peter Bear showing off the finger laser lights he got for Christmas!

One very excited Peter Bear. "What's in there?  What's in there?"

If you're giving one little boy a ride.  The other needs one as well!!

 Happy Little Lincoln

  Not-so-happy Little Lincoln.

 Snuggles = everything's all right in the world again.

Snow!!  Let's go play!

All bundled up and unable to move!

Peter Bear

Little Lincoln and Peter Bear

 Story time with Aunt Chelli

Peter Bear likes to play race cars!

Little Lincoln likes to Swiffer!

...and play with the humidifier!

Caught red-handed!

Much Love.

Estoy con mi familia.

As Dad informed us it was the first time everyone had slept overnight at the home-home. :)
 

 

Much Love.

Estoy recuperando.

My first week of vacation did not go exactly as planned. It was in truth, very reminiscent of Han Solo coming out of his carbonite deep freeze. To start off, he fell flat on his face.  And then, due to his lingering hibernation sickness, it took awhile for him to return to full operational capacity once again.

I would say that today (a week into vacation) was the first day that I felt close to normal. I wasn't expecting it to take a full week for rest and recuperation, but I was sick a few days ago, which set me back, and so I blame that for the protracted recovery.

Even as Han Solo recovered his eyesight in time to save Lando from the Sarlacc Pit, I too feel ready to go once again!!!!

Prior to my arrival in the MidWest, an ice storm had wreaked havoc on the wooden population here. Trucks, attempting to dispose of the fallen branches, would get stuck in the muddy fields, and therefore a rather large unattended bonfire has continually burned over the past week in the parking lot of the community public pool catty-corner from our house.

Much Love.

Estoy todavia trabajando.

One of the Radiology Techs overnight at the hospital last night told me that...

 "What New Year's Eve finds you doing, 

is what you will be doing for the following year."

I spent my New Year's Eve trying to avoid stepping in all the blood and vomit.
Impossible to succeed.

hmmmmm  

I wish everyone a wonderful 2016, filled with happiness, peace and joy.

Much Love.