Read today’s reblog, folks. Just one page over, “Leaving Twilight Zone“. You will find an amazing fact of nurses beaten and otherwise injured-on-purpose while on the job. READ IT.
Tag: heartbreak
Leaving the Twilight Zone
Amazingly helpful site, inspired by one woman’s painful experiences. My nod to Mental Health Month.
It was time to get back to work following a closed head injury. I thought everything was going well and my simple concussion was resolved. Oh, if I only knew what was yet to come. So by Monday November 4, 1991 and 5 days later I was ready to return to work. After all a few days have passed since I was hit in the head and certainly there should not be any reason to keep me from working.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Down – 3
We have a lot of dead trees after last summer’s drought and have been marking them for a sale. Since I was keeping the tally while someone else did all the work, I could spend time looking around. I have seen a LOT of trees.
Some of these poor things are real troopers and remind me of myself and some of my friends. They have been wounded down near their bases by ice storms, insects, buck deer, and other invaders of their quiet domain. I wonder if I am imagining things here, or if others can see themselves in these trees, too.
This first type is the sheltering type:
This tree will never make fine furniture grade. It is a humble, struggling entity, but has a spot to share with any other humble, struggling entity. Can’t you imagine a wee mouse family finding comfort here?
Here is another. Don’t you love the way this tree, though obviously dealt a heavy blow in early life, has risen to the occasion by developing an upward-reaching lifestyle in non-standard ways? It ‘s almost like a life motto: Always reach up!
And because of their flaws, they will never be part of a paladian palace. They may not even possess health enough to live as long as other trees.
But they do make a grand shelter from a snowy wind.
This one is similar, but look: Perhaps it was a bit older when it’s down days came, or the damage was heavier, but this one is able not only to help a bit larger creature, but also to provide guaranteed dryness during storms. Who couldn’t use a friend like that!
But here is my favorite:
I knew I remembered this one and looked a long time to find it for you. I named it “Drama Queen” because of that look of surprise all over it. I imagine a friend I normally would not hang with a lot, because she is loud and pushy. Yet, I know I am safe with her and if I needed anything, big or small, she would be so glad to help me, to draw me in with what might seem like five or six arms, and would have a large base of resources to draw from.
Wounded? Yes, they all are.
Fine, straight, high dollar? Nope.
Just invaluable to someone and absolutely necessary in this ol’ life.
But . . . There Really IS a Fire in the Theater!!!
I know my readers love stories and this one is a doozy.
Do read it and wake up.
Here you will find the amazing story of the true purpose of censorship
and the true purpose of freedom of expression
in a world gone awry.
Do read it.
And wake up.
Saturday Sayings – Peaceful
What peaceful hours I once enjoy’d!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.
William Cowper
Walking with God
. . . and Thanksgiving Found!
Today is the second story, the one that makes yesterday’s post complete in expression of the beauty of blessings. If you didn’t read yesterday’s, you kind of have to read it now. Today’s won’t make as much sense without it.
Fast forward one year. It is Thanksgiving Day, again. We are planning the 500 mile trek home again. Our arm is better. We are playing more carefully, now. We are so totally ready, again.
But a lot has happened in another family we know. The family that opened its home to us last year, when we were sort of stranded, in a medical way of speaking, had lost its only source of income. The dad–we’ll call him Clarence–had been jobless for weeks, had found new employment several hours away and had moved his entire family there to be with him. Things were looking rather good for them and we rejoiced that after such a long trial, these kind people had found some relief from their troubles.
Clarence also had medical insurance at this new job and needed elective surgery. He chose the weekend of Thanksgiving for it because he had days off and so did his parents; they could all be together.
We visited with them over the phone a time or two before the surgery. He felt a bit uneasy, as anyone would before surgery, and Clarence and my husband were pretty good friends. Clarence would call my husband his best friend, but my husband is shy of being called by superlatives.
I think it was the Wednesday. You know–THE Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We were readying to go, I know that for sure. Then the call came. Clarence’s wife wanted prayer for his surgery. I told her of course we were praying. She said that no, she meant really, really pray, that something was not going right. She began to cry. I listened. My horror grew as I realized the medical terms she was quoting from the doctors were the warm-up words they use to prepare the family for death of the patient. I think she wanted me to help her accept this might be happening. I don’t remember what I said, but I did not want to commit myself to anything quotable until I had spoken with my husband.
I called my husband and told him what I thought. It did not register with him. He came home as early as he thought appropriate, and by then I had spoken several more times with Clarence’s wife and when my husband walked in the door I told him, “I think Clarence is dead.”
The grief that washed over him made me sorry I had to tell him.
He called the wife and spoke with her a bit. When he hung up, he said he was going immediately. He took our older son, Clarence’s older son’s best friend. The two of them stayed up all night waiting for the doctors to admit the truth: Clarence had suffered from a fatal reaction to the anesthesia. He had gone out of this life saying to his wife, “Something’s not right. Something’s not right. Tell them! Something’s not right.” She heard these, his last words, I am sure, forever, although that was maybe 12 or 15 years ago and she is happily remarried now.
But my husband and my son were there. They were able to help Clarence’s family assimilate the truth and deal with the aftermath. This kind family who had opened their home to us during the previous Thanksgiving, now missing one member, were the needy ones. And although our plans were again foiled by the events around us, by troubles and tragedies around us, there was the blessing: We could be there for them.
And we realized: That Thanksgiving Dinner we had shared the year before was the last event, ever, that we shared with him before he moved his family and then died. If we had not had reason to stay home, we so would have missed that one last dinner.
And that was the 8th blessing.
And we know that in all things, God works for good with those who love Him . . . Romans 8:28
Sunday Scriptures – Family
. . . Defend the cause of the fatherless . . . Isaiah 1:17
Isn’t this what families are for? We stick together and help the weaker among us. Right?
I’m not a Catholic, but we’re all part of the family of man, right?
This from Life News:
“Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is at it again, bashing Catholics for their pro-life position when she has promoted abortion in defiance of Catholic Church teaching at every turn.
“This time, Pelosi is upset that the nation’s Catholic bishops are protesting a potential O**** administration decision forcing insurance companies to cover birth control, contraception and drugs that could cause abortions. They say certain religious groups may not be exempt from providing the insurance, which would violate their moral and religious views.”
And then Pelosi added, ” . . . they have this conscience thing . . . ”
Read more here.
And be glad if you have a conscience. It is not a bad thing to have, no matter what anyone says.
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Image via Wikipedia
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