I have finally – after ten years – learned the secret to dressing in Canada during the “off” seasons of spring and fall: a hoodie with a downy sleeveless vest on top. Warm toasty comfortable, but so not your winter jacket. I get desperately sick of wearing that one.

My goodness, I love peas!

Personal attention goes a long – long – way.

My girlfriend at work and I can never decide on which movie to see together. When I tell her which upcoming films I’m excited about, she jokingly says that I can go with her husband to see those “boy” movies that she’d rather not see.

Journals really are just for sharing with yourself. You are a special person too.

Volunteers really need to defer to nursing staff when it comes to helping patients. I have a feeling someone seriously got in the way, right at shift change when no one else was around.

Wishing I had danced more last time I was in New Orleans.

Everyone has a gift, love and share yours.

Very much wishing I knew Joss had created a new tv show. Now I have to wait until July for the first season of Dollhouse to go out on DVD.

All it takes to get a big thing done sometimes is to stop and do it.

The local library apparently has an entire bag full of Calvin and Hobbes books. My son wanted to bring them ALL home today.

Putting on lipstick, spritzing your hair and getting out your summer clothes are fun whether you are nine or ninety.

Wondering why I am enjoying books about writing so very much when I have no plans to write anything my own.

Please don’t grow up to be a crotchety old person, because then I’ll have to take care of you.

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What do we need to do to take care of ourselves?

Listen to that voice inside. What makes you angry? What have you had enough of? What don’t you trust? What doesn’t feel right? What can’t you stand? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you want? Need? What don’t you want and need? What do you like? What would feel good?

In recovery, we learn that self-care leads us on a path to God’s will and plan for our life. Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.

Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever-present. Listen to, trust and nurture that guide.

Boundaries are vital to recovery. Having and setting healthy limits is connected to all phases of recovery: growing in self-esteem, dealing with feelings, and learning to really love and value ourselves.

Boundaries emerge from deep within. They are connected to letting go of guilt and shame, and to changing our beliefs about what we deserve. As our thinking about this becomes clearer, so will our boundaries.

There’s something magical about reaching that point of becoming ready to set a limit. We know we mean what we say; others take us seriously too. Things change, not because we’re controlling others, but because we’ve changed.

~ all taken from The Language of Letting Go

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One day I’ll end up using this in a paper for school. I can just see it. Actually I can’t wait for the opportunity.

“The women who went to the field, you say…
A few names were writ, and by chance live to-day;
But’s a perishing record fast fading away,
Of those we recall, there are scarcely a score…
And what would they do if war came again?…
They would stand with you now, as they stood with you then,
The nurses, consolers, and saviors of men.”

~ Clara Barton

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If you were going somewhere warm on vacation for an unknown length of time and your basic needs of food, shelter and clothes were provided for, what five things or people would you take with you?

Here’s my list:

Now, if you and I were to swap lists and be required to remove three things off that list and leave each other with only two, what would I have left for my trip?

This was a neat little exercise we did at today’s workshop. It highlights the fact that we make choices based upon our value system. The dangerous part comes in when you make choices for other people based on your own values. And the really dangerous part is that as health care workers, we do exactly that everyday. All of a sudden that silly phrase “enabling choices for seniors” we hear from management that once sounded so full of fluff is looking pretty darn important, eh?

All of it left me terribly self-reflective. And it dawned on me for the first that I really don’t like people making decisions for me. People telling me what to do has got to be up there with chopping my arm off. It feels like a complete denial of my personhood and utter disregard for whatever is left of me without my personhood. That may sound extreme, but the ability to choose really is that important to me.

ps. the title is just a word I learned today. something often associated with dementia. i’m completely unable to pronouce it, but i like it. it means an inability to recognize one’s own illness.

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