Final post for 2008.........................................

As 2008 draws to an end I feel like I have finally surrendered to it.

A week and a half before Christmas six out of seven of us got a bad, bad bug. This was two days after I decided to paint the living room, one week before our scheduled resident Christmas party. Of course the painting got thrown off course and wasn't finished (as planned) before (my) Mister had to take some time off for a hernia repair (I know. Why would anyone schedule voluntary surgery two weeks before Christmas? He has kept putting it off and I INSISTED that he do it before the end of the year since it takes us until June to meet our insurance deductible and I didn't want to have to pay out of pocket in January simply because he wouldn't make a few phone calls)

Of course, surgery went well (doc says he could run three weeks status post. I ask just in case since (my) Mister hasn't actually ran a step since the Marathon a year ago October... I believe in miracles), everyone was well for the party and had a great time singing along with my friends that came and played the guitar and banjo. Ya it was the week after the party that the living room was completely painted (the old me would have never stood for this. The new me was completely cool with it), but so what? Christmas day came and went without a hitch, the tree is packed away and my living room looks just like I pictured it (minus some art work I plan to commission to finish it off). Life is good.

What I discovered a-new the last few weeks was that the more I tried to control circumstances and plan things the more out of control and scattered I feel. If I focused on staying in the moment and letting things play out, life seems to unfold not only effortlessly, but just the way I wanted it to. Everything gets done, everyone is happy, and I get a surprise or two along the way. It really is easier to just go with the flow rather than fight to get upstream against the current.

So why is it, that even as I write that there is a part of me that knows I will be fighting a current of two come 2009? I know that my life is going the way it is suppose to. I know that all of my needs will be met and that I will also be blessed with much more than basis needs. I know that life lessons will present themselves and it is up to me to learn them now or wait to learn them the next time they show up. I know that learning them now would be best for my growth and yet I am under no pressure to do so.

Just to prove that point I have been coasting the last few days, hanging out, reading for pleasure, kicking back and relaxing. Things I normally don't do. It has been good for me, and everyone around me has seemed to survive it as well. Imagine that!

So in gratitude I say "So long 2008, you were good to me and for me," and "Welcome 2009. Can't wait to see what gifts and blessings you have in store for me." Bring it on...

12-10-08 is "Call in Gay Day"........................................

Have you heard of this day? I don't really know the details of how it originated, but to show support to same sex unions one is to call in sick to work and not spend any money, or any portion of the two that they are able to do. The nature of my business means I will be performing basic care for my OPs, but I am not doing the home care job and I will not be spending money on this day.

The biggest reason I am supporting this idea?

I put gay marriage rights in the civil liberties category. Yes! It is that simple...

So, in conjunction with the defeat of the CA law recognizing gay marriage I heard something (again, sorry about no real details) that there is some state that is trying to make it illegal for a gay person to be a foster parent.

I try not to be too political and truly believe everyone should be allowed to make decisions about their lives for themselves, but we must speak up for the children.

For whatever reason, and most often the reason involves both physical and emotional pain, foster kids end up in a system that is not equipped to handle their needs effectively. Due to a situation that I will not talk details about I learned that in my school district there is not ONE foster parent. Not one! This means that any kids needing to be removed from their homes in my area will also be removed from their school district. So you are telling me if there was a man or woman out there willing to help out a child, and able to pass all the requirements of becoming a foster parent the people wanting this law passed would rather see this child go into a broken system instead of a loving environment because of sexual preference?

If I were a foster parent I doubt I would be sharing my sex life with any foster children, and believe the same would be true for anyone with a same sex preference. Why the need for a distinction between the two, especially considering that most of the children that a person would be fostering would have seen much more graphic crap than a person's sexual preference or they probably wouldn't be in the system in the first place. Right?

The other thing I must mention in support of same sex unions is also pretty simple. Look at the divorce rate of heterosexual couples. We have done a pretty good job of screwing up marriage, making a joke out of intended life-long commitments when the marriage doesn't even last a year. Compare this to a same sex couple that has no legal binds and yet manage to stick together and work things out for years and years while fighting for the simple right of having their love and commitment recognized as valid. I for one think that those of us that jump from union to union might just have a thing or two we could learn from these couples.

Lastly, I understand that people have interpreted the Bible to say that same sex unions is a sin. I am not here to argue religion with those of you that believe this way. I am only offering up for your mature consideration the possibility that the main theme of the Bible is love and acceptance and love can express itself in a wide variety of form. Stop and consider if you are feeling loving towards another human being no matter what the circumstances of the situation and I think the gap to mutual understanding will decrease considerably no matter what the topic is.

Nough said...

Ahhhh, holidays................

As I travel from home to home bring good cheer and exercise sheets I get to see the homes transformed into various states of holiday cheer. My favorite to date...

A very traditional nativity scene arranged perfectly on a table, and at the foot of the table a VERY laid back red-nosed reindeer hanging out, sprawled across a golden sleigh.

Somehow the two balanced out the opposing angles of Christmas just perfectly!

Since we are on the subject of healing......................

Last September I was ask to take a weekend seminar for my PT job. It is a program that focuses on improving peoples balance through concentrating on strengthening the three componates of balance; vestibular (ears) ocularmotor (eyes) and proproception (sensation intake of the feet).

It is a really great program, but I will confess that I have been miffed from time to time about the follow-up WEEKLY MONDAY MORNING meetings that make me leave my house by 8:30. Do you have any clue how hard it is to get four women up, dressed, and breakfasted by that time? I know, whaa, whaa. Had I know that piece of the training I might have turned down the opportunity which would have been my loss. See, there is a good reason for us not to be able to see into the future!

So, I get this client about three weeks ago. At that time his life consisted of eating and laying in bed with an occasional fall and/or doctors appointment sprinkled in here and there. To say the least he was not thrilled with the idea of exercise/therapy but I pored on the Patty charm and got him to work with me. To be perfectly honest what I did was pray all the way to his house for my angels to get him to work with me and then give thanks and praise (to both him and my angels) when it happened.

Two short weeks later his wife shared with me that he is now reading the newspaper and that he watched three hours of television with her the other night. Now this might now seem like much of an improvement in the quality of his life (and let me say that he is also up and walking around and doing other things now that he is not so fearful of falling). The point here is his improvement has positively impacted the quality of his relationship/interaction with his spouse. How cool is that for both of them?

I went into his home thinking I could have some impact on his balance to reduce his fall risk, but by having him work to strengthen his eye muscles the program has had a much greater effect on his overall quality of life.

Why post about this? As I was thinking about his changes I realized that I am still putting things into neat little packages and wonder if this isn't somehow limiting the outcomes of my life. If I were more open to unknown, unseen possibilities would I be even more blessed than I already am? Is that selfish to even think about?

Maybe we should all try an experiment and practice being purposefully open to possibility instead of perceived outcomes and chart what comes into our lives as a result of doing so. What do ya think?

An early Christmas miracle.................................

NOTE: If you get a little squeamish in the middle of the story hang in there I promise a happy ending...

Last Saturday morning I woke up to find Fred (the cat that adopted up last March) not bearing any weight on his right front paw. Having not gotten around to having him de-clawed yet I called the only vet I found that does Lazar de-clawing to see if they could see him since he needed to have a check up before they would do the procedure anyway.

Of course they could not fit him in on Saturday but said if he didn't seem to be too distressed they didn't see any reason that he could not wait until Monday to be seen. Except for the altered gait Fred was acting perfectly normal so we went with that plan.

Come Monday the vet checked him out and Fred let him know how unhappy he was when it came to having the paw touched. The Vet stepped back and declared that the only way they could treat him would be to keep him overnight, knock him out, X-ray the leg and go from there. For these diagnostic procedures the bill would be a minimum of $400.00. If anything needed to be done it would go up from there.

The faithful readers of this blog know how much I love Fred, but he is a cat and the way I was brought up animals are farther down on the food chain than humans (not to mention it is against the law to not seek medical treatment for your children) and I could just not see spending this kind of money to find out what was wrong with him. I called (my) Mister and he concurred so I packed Fred back into the kitty crate and brought him home.

In the small amount of time the Vet was actually able to check out the leg Fred only made noise when he arrived at the paw so I deduced that the leg was not broken, and that he had done something to the paw. We held his paw over the sink and dumped some peroxide over the paw and then put some antibiotic ointment on the paw.

We repeated this procedure again yesterday morning, and last night when Fred was jumping up onto his favorite ledge he hit the paw and some blood spurted out of it.

This morning he is weight bearing on the paw and seems to be just fine which totally supports my theory that the body is a miraculous thing and given time it will often heal itself without a lot of intervention. I am thrilled and grateful beyond belief. This makes two times now that I have almost had to lose Fred and then got him back.

And even though I know it isn't logical, somehow I feel $400.00 richer! Crazy I know...