Thoughts from a professional masker
As a former OR nurse, I just don’t see what the big deal is. I worked 40+ hours a week, in a mask. For most of my nursing career. With asthma.
It’s not like anyone is taking away our guns. Goddess Forbid!
I know for a fact masks work to prevent the transmission of our germs from one being to another. That’s why we wear them in operating rooms. Everywhere. Globally. Because they work.
We wear masks to protect our patients. For many days before any symptoms emerge— we are all carriers. Of anything we might ‘catch’. From the flu to the common cold to TB to COVID. By the time symptoms appear — you have already been contagious for any number of days. Because your symptoms are your body’s response to the virus or bacteria that have taken up residence. The virus or bacteria, on the other hand, has been busy growing and spreading under your body’s radar. …
It’s not about vengeance after all
When I started looking deeper into the philosophies behind my yoga and meditation practice, I learned about Karma. The real and true meaning of the energy.
Karma is defined by Dictonary.com as:
the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. Destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
Karma can be immediate or take a long time to percolate. However, it is always neutral — just as destiny is neither good nor evil. It simply is. Karma doesn’t seek justice on anyone’s behalf. It’s not punishment for misdeeds and sins. …
A transition from The Frantic
I’ve been retired now a little over two months. And frankly, I just don’t know how I ever made time to hold down a 40-hour+/week job! Because truly — I just don’t have the time (or inclination) to make that work anymore.
In my pre-retirement days, I heard horror stories of Humans who simply went adrift once they clocked out for the last time. Humans who were bored with retirement and went back to work at a new place just for something to do. Humans who languished on their couch watching Netflix and NCIS reruns. …
The first day of vacation feeling
August 2017:
I’m officially on vacation. There is a different vibe to My Life when I woke up this morning. There was no alarm clock at 0500 bonging at me, even though most mornings I am awake before it goes off.
There was a peaceful, slow embracing of my morning. I pondered the vastness of the next twelve days. All that yummy time. All mine. …
Uniting Mind/Body/Spirit
When the hot flashes hit me at age thirty-nine — I became a completely miserable Human being. Seeking out the typical ‘treatment’ for the natural aging process — I went to my MD who attempted to start me on hormone therapy. After three months, I developed unbearable migraines and I stopped the drugs.
Unfortunately, the migraines hung around long after the hormones had left my system.
The next step, suggested by said MD, was bio-feedback along with some good old fashioned exercise and diet changes. Yoga also got mentioned.
So I joined my local gym and began to exercise for the first time in My Life. EVER. I was a nurse. In the OR. I lifted patients and trays of instruments. I pushed stretchers and ICU beds around daily. Not to mention the moving of the not-awake-and-dead-weight-patient around on an operating room table. Oh — and the 13K+ steps/day I took. Going to a gym seemed like a walk in the park after my ten-hour+ shifts in the OR. …
How do you identify yourself?: prompt
What’s in a name?
Just like Nancy — I was given a fruity nickname by my high school friends. Partially because my nemesis (Jack) showed his affection by tormenting the hell out of me. Jack used to ask me (comedian that he was) — “Is that your nose or are you eating a banana?” And then punctuate his question by calling me “Anna-Banana”. For him the joke never got old. He also labeled another friend, “Lizard.” A direct comment on her attractiveness to the male of the species.
Yep. Kids can be cruel.
But being high school girls in the ’70s, Lizard and I simply embraced the pain our given nicknames caused us and pretended it didn’t matter. That the insult to our physical appearance was actually a show of affection from a male of the species. Both of us became very good at the art of sarcasm to hide our hurt. …
The power and peace in a pronoun
Every Father’s Day — I have to remind myself that there are loving men out there who enjoy participating in their children’s lives. My son-in-law is an amazing Dad. A Real Dad to his girls. A loving parent.
My own life experience as a child did not give rise to a loving, caring father archetype. In fact, it was just the opposite.
After my mother died, my father was lost in his grief and in his own world. I wasn’t his daughter — I was staff — there to tend to his household and keep things running. …
Drama at the carnival
Carving out the steps: prompt
Ascending in Life
Leveling up. It’s a common notion — everyone who has ever played a video game knows exactly what I’m referring to. The moment when you reach a place you have never been to before. The rules might change, the dangers are different, you learn to accommodate a new reality.
You’ve leveled up.
You have left the struggle of the previous level behind to face a brand new set of challenges. There is a moment of joy and victory that you bask in right before you realize— this level is even tougher. …
Holding & Healing: prompt
A fireside chat
Pause. That’s it. Push it now. Drop out of Your Life. You’ll be amazed — they won’t even really miss you. All those Humans whom you thought couldn’t survive without you — will do just that. Survive without you.
What’s that you say? You have deadlines, meetings, vacations, and other such sundry stuff on your agenda/calendar/datebook. {chuckle} Guess again.
You’ll be sitting here until further notice. On your couch. Being grateful for every breath. Every. Single. Breath. You will learn to exist in Your Now because that’s the only piece of Time you can concentrate on,
Breathe in. Breathe out. …
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