Cool Down - Writing Exercise

This story, Cool Down, is a lightly edited version of our ten minute free write exercise at Writer’s group yesterday afternoon. Each group member pulled two cards from a bag. The cards were from the board game Picture Picture. All the cards had completely different pictures on them. Our choice was to do the exercise using one or both of the cards. I chose to combine the cards for my story.

My first card showed a 50 something man, dressed in suit and tie, shouting angrily into a telephone. The second card show a couple somewhat older, sitting in their camper, with their hunting rifles, dressed in their hunting gear with broad smiles and looking happy.

I edited my story to portray a one sided phone conversation. 
Here’s my story Cool Down written in 10 minutes

““YOU TWO LEFT WITHOUT ME!! Can you not UNDERSTAND what this means!? I’ve been waiting for two years for this camping trip. I had my hunting rifles all oiled and ready to go! All I had to do was get out of this damned suit and tie, pick up my gear and leave. My own little trailer is hitched to my jeep. Now I get this post card from you looking like a couple of grinning idiots.

Do I sound mad? You bet I am. But I’ll cool down. It’s just that I’ll have to catch up to you - or go off on my own hunting trip. 

Hmm? Maybe a fishing trip would be better. I’ve got that gear all packed too. A hunting trip by myself doesn’t sound too safe, but fishing? A quiet river bank, my trailer near by. A small fire to cook a big fat trout on. No phones, no computer. The only thing to be aware of would be the fish and whether they were biting. And if they’re not, I’ll have food in my little fridge. 

Yup. A couple of nights off in the woods by a stream filled with fish. You two just have yourselves a good time and we can share stories when we both get back.

Oh, I feel much better now. I might even stop smoking those cigars that Helen hates so much. Joe, you quit them years ago didn’t you?

Anyway, sorry I yelled through the phone at you.”

“Sometimes it takes a meltdown to cool down.”

~ Evinda Lepins

What's In the Box? - Writer's group for June

**This short piece, admittedly a bit more venting, is also our topic assignment for our writer's group from the phrase:  'What's in the box……….'   Not a particularly cheery piece. Other group members had us smiling and laughing!

What's In the Box?

So. What’s in the box? The box that holds my heart and soul? The box made up of rules and regulations created to foster the bottom line of dollars and cents where there seems to be no sense at all?  The box seems to get smaller, tighter and more sealed off everyday until, my beliefs begin to wink out, like candles caught with no oxygen to feed an ever weakening flame. 

What is in the box of habit and routine? Defensive, protective behaviours we each have created to be able to survive each system we work in, and those we live in.  It takes me back many years to earlier choices I have made. Choices I have made to leave bad situations and to be happy despite the many bumps on that journey. Today, however, I prefer to look differently, and with awareness, at my present situation and decide to stay within in it. To decide to be happy with my place and my voice. Accepting the things I cannot change has always been difficult for me when I have seen changes that seem so obvious to me. Changes that should be based on logic, common sense and compassion.

I did not come into nursing for dollars and cents. After all I was still a teenager at 17-going on-18 years of age. I’m 68 now, going on 69. Dollars and cents are necessary. Necessary for any of us to exist and to live on. The art, science and spirit of nursing is still what I believe in despite any monetary needs.

What is in the box? The box of schedules, rules and regulations…..and the bottom line? Each box nests within the other, squeezing the humanity out of society’s awareness of what is right. The humanity that has been stuffed inside, and willingly, so we can live with our dollars and cents. Too often we each forget that our beliefs, our common sense and our logic are not to be ignored.

“Without work, all life goes rotten, but when 

work is soulless, life stifles and dies.”

~ Albert Camus

Awareness

Artful
Wisdom
Acting
Responsibly
Ethically
Naturally
Elevating
Sense
Sanity

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science 

gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

~ Isaac Asimov

Failure to Recognize

Not a good way to begin the month of June.
Anger and huge frustration about addictions health care
And I do use those three words with great caution
The health care of patients and clients on the frontlines
The health of health care workers on the frontlines

I have devoted the last several decades to this work
I also became aware of the neurobiology of addiction
Always expecting that the bizarre behaviours of our clients
will be seen as a symptom,
that the approaches taken 
in nursing, in social work and in medicine 
and in health care systems will be developed;
that brain trauma of any kind changes an individual’s behaviour,
and such behaviour can be unpredictable and extremely dangerous  to any of us on the front lines charged with the individual's care.

Am I angry about the uncontrolled behaviour of a client with severe brain trauma?
Organic, substance affected, mental illness, in withdrawal or all of the above?
And did I mention anything else ~ oh say like poor nutrition, poverty, ……
Or angry about the systems that appear to continue utilizing ineffective models of care?
And did I mention under-funding and under-educating systems that are in place?

I think that’s enough venting for now.
I won’t stop working for and caring for these clients, these patients ~ my fellow human beings.

“Compassion is all inclusive. Compassion knows no boundaries. Compassion comes with awareness, and awareness breaks all narrow territories.”

~ Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power

Session Three - Art Writing Class

Painting by Dorothy Appleton

The challenge is still on. When other classmates are artists of the visual arts, my art is crafting of words - specifically this blog. This week we were introduced to the Artist Statement. To examine the roots of my desire to write, my personal study in writing - and then put it all down in words - was a very interesting exercise. The completed statement is part of next week’s assignment to hand in. I plan on posting it on next week’s blog.

My ‘pop-up gremlin’s’ have been quite noisy today assuring me that I am completely out of place in the class. Once they quiet down, I let the little darlings know I am learning about myself and my writing practice. The real purpose of this class.

“In a half-empty-glass sort of world, 

I’m the little girl whose cup runneth over.”

~ Sheila C. Johnson

Coming Home to Apathy

I was going to write an essay tonight about the Homelessness Forum I attended this evening. The evening was lovely - 800 people in a grand old church listening to the Mayors of three cities - Victoria, Medicine Hat, Alberta and Eugene, Oregon discuss the challenges they have encountered. Solutions were entertained for housing for those without homes or the resources to get one.

But, I’m tired tonight so I’m just home from work, door locked with my feet up on my sofa while the dishwasher cleans up my dishes for me. Television is my companion - enjoyable and predictable. 

“People can be so apathetic. They continue to ignore the real people 

trapped in poverty and homelessness. It’s almost maddening.”

~ Daphne Zuniga

Fire and Brimstone

A flash of brimstone

Flaring fast from bubbling lava

Splashing ooze with threatening heat

Sudden challenge to peace and calm

“Don’t dance on a volcano.”

~ French Proverb