December 22, 2011

Peace On Earth When Snowflakes Fall by Linda Meikle

(Previous posting has been deleted so this one can have perfect spelling...)

(Linda Meikle photo)

Peace on Earth When Snowflakes Fall


Snow arrived silently overnight, painting windowsills and mountain hills

With a magic wand on land and pond, it drew the art with metallic bond!

As far as the eye can see, the workings of a snow-clad Leprechaun!

Cats look out the window to see if they can go outside nice and slow.

Children pulling sleds and yelling through the snow, "Let's go!"

Out the door and along each house, winding rivets like jumping mouse.

Schools are closed for the day. Children free to run and play!

Me. I'm snuggled close with chocolate warm and housecoat old & worn.

Gifts are wrapped. Boxes packed and off to the P.O. Shack!

Hubby wrapped in blankets close and warm as toast.

Dreams of howling wolves and snow bears' ghost!

Snow arrived silently overnight painting windowsills and mountain hills

Silent magic flakes creating children thrills and rush-hour stills.

Peace on Earth is shared by all when Silent Night snowflakes fall.

By Linda Meikle 12-22-2011

Take Care on the Journey
Your friend in life,
~Linda

Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com

December 20, 2011

Colorado Moose

Rocky Mountain Moose Stops Traffic!

...May You Always Have Front Row Seats!
Rocky Mountain National Park, June 2011
(Linda Meikle photo)
Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life
~Linda


Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com

December 13, 2011

Colorado Rocky Mountain Rock Polishing Success

After three months of playing nanny to the rock tumbler and meticulously keeping track of the dates for the different polishing materials, my rock polishing project is finally paying off.

During my geocaching travels, I discovered a cache of quartz rock. It's actually in plain sight of a trail, but hikers keep to the path and completely miss the treasure of Colorado quartz in Golden, CO.  We took the kids (grown kids)  back to pick up some more for me when they were here at Thanksgiving time.

See the before and after photos. (Not the exact same rocks, but almost.)
(Linda Meikle photos)

It takes at least six weeks for the transformation!



For those who were promised some polished rocks in my Christmas letter, I'm pleased to announce that Walgreens has their small bubble envelopes, usually $1.99, on sale for 39-cents this week - just for me!

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life
~Linda

Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com

December 12, 2011

100 Years From Now, What Difference Will It Make

(Sorry for the paragraphing, I wrote in Word, posted in Chrome Google, and viewed in Internet Explorer.)

100 Years From Now…


My husband has this saying that is a cure for annoying doldrums (black mood, dumps, slump, and blahs or accidents by the wife).


His favorite response is also effective for displacing displeasure with joy; disgust with respect; acrimony with courtesy; and pain with comfort.


It also works for anything that is, “my bad” as the current saying goes. Or, for those times we look up and say in exasperation, “seriously???”


“One hundred years from now, what difference will it make?” observes my philosophical, enduring, imperturbable, gentle, and loving, hubby, “Daddy Jim” when things go badly.


We like to assume we will live forever. It’s hard to wrap our heads around the, “one hundred years from now” philosophy.


I surely expect to milk it for all it’s worth and continue to live a vibrant, dynamic, sparkling, and vivacious life until I’m the last one out!


Last Friday at work, a patient passed away a few hours after I arrived on duty. He was 88 (I think), and what I saw was a withered old man who was unresponsive, breathing heavy with his mouth open, and skin covered with bruises and discoloration.


An older woman sat quietly beside him smoothing his hair back. Silent tears ran down her face as I approached to check for her husband’s respirations and heartbeat.


A few minutes later, when the LPN came to tell me that our patient had died, I hurried to ‘pronounce” him as having no respiration and no heartbeat. My next responsibility was to call everyone on the “to-call” list including the doctor, the chaplain, the administrator, the front desk, the mortuary, the director of nursing, and Hospice.


About an hour after he died, there was a small remembrance service conducted at the bedside with the chaplain presiding, as we always do at our facility.


As I held the daughter’s hand and listened to others tell of this man’s life, I was shocked! He had been a United State Air Force fighter pilot all his life. His first mission had been at Pearl Harbor. He had been commended for helping save one of the Marshall Islands during the war when his plane bombed and destroyed an enemy ship. He was to have a full military funeral after his remains were returned from the research organization he had donated them to!


He and his wife loved life, even learning to deep sea dive after the age of 80-years old. And, so much more I learned during those few minutes of togetherness, while he lay in repose on the bed, silent and still, gently covered with a white sheet.


Time seemed to stop during those few minutes of exploration into this one man’s life. I thought about the one hundred years allotted to some of us as living one life, for one moment in time.


One hundred years from now, will it matter that the chocolate frosted cake, created with such precise care and delicate detail, got accidentally turned upside down?


One hundred years from now, it will not still be frustrating that all the Christmas cards were returned for no postage?


One hundred years from now, the disappointment over a box of dry, brittle chocolates will be forgotten.


One hundred years from now, the loneliness when our children moved so far away will be replaced with the joy of finding them again.


One hundred years from now, there will no longer be the memory of a boss or coworker who is unrelenting, ungrateful, selfish, critical, arrogant, and dictatorial?


One hundred years from now, no one will miss the Christmas gift that got lost in the mail?


One hundred years from now, I will not remember the time the cat peed on my last clean uniform just as I was getting ready for work?


One hundred years from now, I won’t care that the new tire got ruined with a nail, and that I didn’t pay the $15 for a replacement guarantee?


I think of my friends as I fast forward,


One hundred years from now, she won’t remember the time hubby spent Christmas in jail for not having insurance on the car?


One hundred years from now, the penetrating pain of rejection by a lost love will no longer exist.


One hundred years from now, we will no longer feel the weight of the world from the loss of a good job, destruction of a beautiful home, death of a soul mate, spouse, loving child, devoted friend, or faithful pet, whose passing caused such great depression and grief.


No, we will not remember those scenes that brought profound sentiments and intense feelings.


In retrospect, some experiences may be the same one hundred years from now…


The lunar and solar eclipse will continue to stun the world.


Vacationers will swim delightedly with the dolphins.


Quartz stones in the pocket will bring good luck.


Volcanoes will rock the world and spew ashes and hot gasses into the atmosphere.


Continents will still shift and cause devastating earthquakes.


The four seasons will be enjoyed by most of the world.


It will snow in the high country, and be dry in deserts.


Cars won’t have tires.


People won’t mail Christmas cards.


Robots will make the chocolate cakes, and pronounce people dead.


People will still dislike going to work every day to tolerate unrelenting, ungrateful, selfish, critical, arrogant, and dictatorial, bosses or coworkers.


Our children, family, friends, enemies, bosses, and co-workers, will be wherever we are in time and space.


Our grandchildren will be nearing 100-years old. It will be a new century with old ways.


Unless of course, as some say, our universe has ended, and another has begun.


So, don’t forget to smile today and say thank-you, even if you don’t feel like it … and repeat Daddy Jim’s favorite saying when you remember,


“One hundred years from now, what difference will it make?”


Thank-you, Daddy Jim.


Take Care on the Journey
Your friend in 100-years of life,
~Linda



Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com

December 8, 2011

Time For Reflection

Creative thinking creates more creative thoughts...
(Google photo)

I woke up the other morning at 4:30 a.m.  The wind was howling snow around the house, and the warm electric blanket was blissful. Little Paws was on her mini-pillow just above my regular pillow. Sir Caesar was stretched out over both my feet, and little DeeDee was curled up between me and hubby.

I couldn't move without disturbing all the furry children, and I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just thought about things I needed to think about!

What are they doing at work?  Did they send someone home for low census (like I do on weekends)? Or, are they working with full staff when someone should have gone home?  Maybe I'll work with full staff this weekend and see if anyone says anything?  Well, move on...

What will I get done today? First is some meditation and then school work on the computer. I'm thinking that we have an online instructor who is in the hospital for sciatica (I think), but still trying to keep up with her online teaching. Sometimes the morphine shows through.  I like perfection. Her ups and downs and inconsistency irritate me. Who am I to complain? I'm making 99.8 percent.  Well, move on...

There's the hiding spot in my closet where I've hidden Christmas gifts. I need to pull them all out and see who gets what. Who do I still need to buy for? Oh my, that reminds me that I've not even started Christmas cards. Most of our family and friends don't even have our new address.  Will I add a Christmas letter?  A photo? Maybe a nice reflective poem about the year. We moved again. We have a sweet new home. We got a darling new dog. These questions are too big to finish thinking about now. Move on...

How much are we going to decorate this year?  I know the couple before us even added something to the roof of the house. There are hooks along the eves for lights to cover the entire roof. Oh dear. That's way too much work. Are we even going to put up a tree?  Nobody's coming to visit. But, maybe someone will stop by. And we don't even have a tree up? Yep, we'll bring the artificial tree from the basement and start with that. Move on...

Thinking about the new job (transfer) I applied for makes me feel warmly happy. I'm going to change the office around and bring the desk out of the room with no windows. Well, the only room that has a window is the patient area, but I'll redecorate and move my desk and computer to the room where the door is. That way I can see anyone who comes to the door rather than be surprised by someone standing in the doorway to the room with no windows.  I'll wear street clothes with a lab coat, so will need to go shopping if I get the job.  Love thinking about the new job...

Will hubby ever get work again? Or, should we plan our retirement without his additional income? He just had another interview last week, but got turned down.  That's always on my mind, so why let it spoil my early morning reflection?  Move on...

(Forward three weeks...)

Still haven't heard about my new job, but I was told a decision might be made before Christmas.

Yep, we put up a tree and had so much fun with it, we decorated a lot more. But, no, we're not going to string lights outside. Too cold for that! Too much work for neighbors we don't even know.

I gave my instructor and my online school an evaluation that I sure hope they don't pass on to the instructor. (Do they ever do that?)  I said the school should have let her take time off to get well. That she shouldn't have been trying to teach when she was on narcotics. That she tried real hard, but I had to take time to show her where I DID answer the question and I should have gotten credit (that I didn't need.) But, it was the point of it.  (She gave me the three points.)

Hubby says he's found three new jobs to apply for.  Oh dear. Now the long wait for the phone call or email with an invite... But, what if he gets a job?  I simply won't know how to act.

Oh yes, I've added a new blog. That makes 19 blogs I own.  The link is HERE or http://www.thenameofmychurch.blogspot.com

So, next time you find yourself with a few extra minutes, here's some things you can do.
  1. Set the clock in the car an hour ahead like it should be.
  2. Come up with a better way to keep the gloves, scarfs and hats together. (A shoe bag inside the closet door)
  3. Makes notes to yourself with a few goals for healthy living (even if you are living healthy).
  4. Finally decide what you're going to wear to the Christmas party.
  5. Find some new dishes to make for dinner and add them to the weekly menu.
  6. Call a friend you've been meaning to touch bases with.
  7. Send a birthday card to someone who isn't expecting it.
  8. Speaking of birthdays, set up a notification list of BD's and occasions.
  9. Organize one drawer in your home. Make it a prize-winner!
  10. Set up bill pay on your computer (if that's something you can do).
Well, here's my ten. Can you come up with more?
Feel free to add them as a comment. I'd love to see a whole bunch of 'reflective thinking'.

Don't forget to check out my new blog and leave a comment there too, if you want to.
http://www.thenameofmychurch.blogspot.com

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life,
~Linda


Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com

December 6, 2011

Our Angel Christmas Tree 2011

I'm suddenly so busy, I can't tell if I'm coming or going. Work added another 12-hour day for which we are grateful, but with my schoolwork and other activities, the days go flying by!

At Walgreens' I found some Christmas tree angels that blink with different colors. Hubby and I loved them so much that we went back and got more.  Here's a video of our tree with music from Celtic Women in the background TV.  We want to get some of their CD's.



I took a video with Jim's iPhone, so no telling how it will look.  If this doesn't show up nicely on the blog, I'll delete it, but some of you will still get it by email.

Hope it's good so you can enjoy our glowing, blinking, angel, Christmas tree.

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life,
~Linda


Linda's E-mail: bestnurse@usa.com