After the Whirlwind

Early morning wakening,
rising from a dream world of
yachts and spies and sorting CD’s and jars of something,
when, from ether's land came floating down, like dry leaves and scraps of paper, three disconnected bits of yesterday left behind ~ two for home and one a promise and left behind on clipboard and in staff room.

There was pungent delicious rosemary from a colleagues garden,
research papers for interesting study and learning and
a bit of shift change reporting that was missed at day's end.
Each scrap left behind held the element of a promise
A promise of delicious savoury meat on the grill.
A promise of gleaning information for my use in writing.
A promise to pass on a client’s request.
Which holds more importance?

“The value of your work is not in the dollar. It’s in your word.”

~ Author Unknown

A Hectic Day in Health Care

Helter skelter, phones a-ringing.

Energetic sprints across the nurses station.

Connection points with clients snatched out of thin air.

Tension mounted then eased with meals, groups and visits.

Instantaneous reflexes toss questions to the physician for resolution.

Connections manage to strengthen through the noisy communication of busy health care.

“ A continual atmosphere of hectic passion is very 

trying if you haven’t got any of your own.”

~ Dorothy Sayers

Transformation - 3

My inner self said
‘You are not worth it!’
‘Stay on the fringe.’
Outside of other’s family gatherings.
Meals shared 
feeling separate
not a real participant 
yet welcomed.
A watcher amid laughing families. 
Children playing with happy screaming noise.
Searching for contentment without complacency.
A never ending search.
Familiar things and rituals ~ are they necessary?
Or just nice things to have?
Can nice things create a facade of contentment?
Are they mere representations of the past?
Connections to past self with
realities ~ perceptions ~ memories stirred and blended,
finally transformed into personal acceptance and joyful self worth.

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

~ E.E.Cummings

Quick as a Wink!

Quick as a wink
from home to work
then back from work to home 
Twirl around three times to fall asleep
then jump up and spin again!
Circle forth and back
stop to breathe 
to enjoy a walk in the sun
Heart and soul link mind and feet 'twixt busy times of day.

“Time is an old firmly rooted tree; we are the breeze rustling it’s leaves.”

~ Terri Guillemets

Just Being Me!

It’s been hard to see any connections today.    
Such an ordinary day!
Reading and writing - but no ‘rithmatic
not til at work much later in the day.
And then it was counting pills and papers ~
making certain that all was in order for clients and all of the staff, the last tidying done for me.
There's a lot of housework in nursing, but with faces and names and stories of lives lived….…
Aha! There is one main thread running through today!
It’s me! I’ve always been with me whether home or at work or at play. And now it is time to be sleeping,
so I say a very goodnight to you all!

“All I can do is be me, whoever that is.”

~ Bob Dylan

Movie Review - Calvary directed by John Michael McDonagh

Powerful. Dark. Challenging present day stigma and showing the humanity of one man who was a priest in a small Irish town. This man becomes a target for the understandable rage of a young man. But from which young man? The connections are many and varied, but always with anger or disbelief. Brendan Gleeson carries this story masterfully. Not a cheery man, but a good man, his character is the center of this movie full of tension juxtaposed against great gentleness. Calvary is a story full of mystery. If you like happy endings this is not the movie for you. However, if you like endings full of tragic realism, please see this powerful story.

“I just wanted be be an ordinary parish priest.”

~ Martin Scorsese

**Now showing at the Odeon Theatre in Victoria, BC on Yates St.

Shades of Choice

What is the link between positive and negative
between being spoiled or being blessed?
Attitudes that change like the flip of a coin
like a light switch turned off or turned on.
A gem’s facets held up to light from the heart
no matter how dim that light shines,
turned slowly to see which side is more clear,
lets choice be the tool and the guide.
Choosing to speak words full of logic and life
or words bringing sharp stinging hail
can gentle any path laid down in life.
To connect the firm bright edge of good 
with the rough darkened edge of bad ~
presents choice between forward or back.

“You can add up your blessings or add up your troubles.

Either way, you’ll find you have an abundance.”

~ Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, 

Verse & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year.

Memories, Photos and Files

It seemed an innocuous pile of papers
beside another innocuous pile of papers.
removed from the file drawer sometime ago for the sake of ……..what was it?  ~

sorting?    

getting rid of old statements?
Papers connecting and collecting each month and each year……
the desk top not seen for at least two months, save for an edge or a corner or two.
So with finality, one paper or page ~ one file folder or old envelope
swept decisively in recycling or trash.
(Clutter can be filed neatly or disposed of.)

All the pieces of this one life connect in these files and memories,
yet another link in the memory and reality chain are years of photographs stores in boxes, suitcases, albums and in e-files - impossible to sort and file but lovely for a good, long browse.

“What I like about photographs is that they capture

a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

~  Karl Lagerfeld