Making a Difference, Comes as a Surprise

I just finished a wonderful adventure.  I did an interim work assignment at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital,in New Bunswick, NJ.
My job was basically the same thing that I have been doing for many years.  I managed an Operating Room.  The difference was the goal was to find a permanent director for the facility. After a very long search and a fair amount of work the goal was met.  Transitioning the new director was just fun and supported a feeling of an accomplished task.

The job was certainly challenging, but rewarding.

 Everywhere,  even in the once dreaded New York City, people were wonderful.  Helpful, kind and caring. More abrupt in conversation and mannerisms to be certain than in some of my other worlds, but the basic human values were there to be seen and experienced.


Where ever I went I encountered kind people.  The train conductor who explained the mass transit rules for my first train trip to Penn Station and my first City outing.  I went alone, felt safe and had a wonderful time. People in stores, those in the churches I visited, coworkers, People working in the post Sandy centers.  People, wonderful people
I found new friends that have touched my heart and will remain there.

I explored the state from Cape May on the south shore and was treated to a quiet beauty and beautiful countryside.  I took back roads and believe it much like the Carolina's ans Ohio there are back areas that are not easy to reach.  Wonderful rolling hills move into the Poconos, the Jersey Shore had a great deal to offer with beautiful beaches. my first real Boardwalks.  Atlantic city Vegas of the East. was exciting and alive.  My most memorable event there was a trip on the famed Sling Shot on the steel pier followed  a sedate ride in a boardwalk carriage (person powered)
Beautiful farmlands, woods, and marvelous architecture were everywhere.  Not nearly enough time in a year to see it all, but I tried.

I visited an Episcopal Church with a graveyard with Revolutionary War graves, the history was amazing. The bulidings were just too amazing for me to accurately describe.

I went about my job, explored and prepared to leave
What I had not prepared for was the things people shared with me  before I left.  Many of the farwells
were very tearful, as I was told over and over about things I had done that made a difference.I was  awed, as a friend pointed out perhaps these people felt compelled to speak out because I was leaving.

I am not certain why they took that time; I do know I was surprised, I simply was there I did listen, I certainly cared but the acts were all simple things that had perfect timing to make a difference

The lesson learned is two fold.  Even the simplest things can really impact others and perhpas we all need to tell people when they do make a difference.  My new promotion for communication.
Tell people you care
Tell people you hear them
Look and really see others
Surprise yourself, I certainly did;  now I have to continue on this course.
Pray for me

The Lioness Lives

When my children were small I learned that I would do almost anything to keep them safe and certainly wanted to protect them from anything that would hurt them.

Little did I know that when they grew up the feeling would remain and in fact grow stronger when it comes to the Grandchildren. 

My family is everything to me and if you hurt anyone of them we are essentially done.  I have effectively dismissed anyone from my life over the years that I felt hurt or would hurt my family.  Perhaps some of this has been misguided but none the less it remains a fact.  I wish I had always been able to apply that same principle to those who hurt me, but that is a completely different thing from the Lioness principle.

I have been thinking about this for some time and after a week with my Grandsons I realize that I would gladly do anything to keep them safe from mean people, and I will.  I love them so much my heart hurts because it swells with love,  I am so Blessed .   No one, but no one, had better hurt them ever.

This may not make much sense to anyone but I felt like saying it. 

People fail to meet our expectations Hmmm

I have been an RN since 1974, longer than some of my friends have been alive, yet I continue to fail in people judging, I am an eternal optimist and believe in the inherent good of others.

 When I worked in FL I had some nurses that actually made voodoo dolls of me because I had a job that they felt should go to someone else,  Unbelievable, yes and yet it is true, I didn't have a clue,  Did it make a difference I truly do not know if the voodoo worked or I was spooked, Fortunately for me the company had other issues and I never had to face the decisions I would have had to make.

Now it is 2012, and I thought things were going well at my interim assignment..I believed what I was told by someone I had replaced and she took a new role.  She has been doing great in a perfect role, in my opinion, and yet in a very public forum she told a Director at our facility that she is doing nothing and I do not know what I am doing.

Well , why was I surprised, hurt and baffled,  I believed that she was happy and doing something to make things better. She actually needed some guidelines and time lines but is great in a teaching role. silly me.

She undermined me, the team and herself.  Do I understand this subversive behavior, no.  I do not.
I have worked with toxic people before and they were hateful, I can not however deal well with this subversive and deceptive behavior.  My decision to move on was difficult \
I am trying to understand the logic she used, and understand where she wants to be

The thing is Nurses need trust and this is now an issue,, How do I deal with this??

I honestly thought with age I would learn to judge better, yet I remain an optomist

Expectatons from the 50/60s on being married, etc.

I recently found something I wrote in High School, it was from Home Economics and the assignment was to write about our view of marriage.  Then I dreamed about being 1/2 half of the perfect couple, OK I did not  use the word perfect, but in re-reading this decades old epistle I learned that my view then was very traditional.  I viewed my role as a wife to make my husbands life perfect.  The actions involved in this included the perfectly clean house, dinner on the table when he was ready, getting up to put on my make up so he would always see me at my best.  I went on to elaborate about this would be accomplished.
My view on this at sixteen was shaped by the world I lived in, marriage was an expectation, being single at the ripe old age of 25, made you a spinster.  Laugh if you will but rural Wisconsin at that time did not have a view of the career beyond being the wife, mother and perhaps secondary income.  Yes there were women with careers, but the truth was they were not recognized in my little world as role models, more likely they were secretly  pitied. 

I did marry young, and did spend my days trying to be the perfect wife to Ken.  My world revolved around him, and unfortunately my goals were unrealistic.  I lacked balance.  I loved doing what I did then, it seemed perfectly normal and I was happy.  However life happened.

How did this way of living affect my life as I see it now?
The absolute truth is I will never really know, but I do see that I excluded my friends from this life.  I saw my girl friends and their significant others, but our previously close relationships were replaced with a more casual friendship.  I would never have admitted that there was anything I lacked,  I have a husband and my life was to be perfect.  Not being perfect WAS not an option in my definition of my life. One simply did not hang out their dirty laundry, you managed.

This was the expectation.  What I did not see that it was my own expectation, based on what I thought I HAD to be. It isolated me, and that did shape my future.

How different the outlook is today. 

Today women are encourage to embrace marriage and their other world together, the isolation part is long gone, the world has broadened. The balance of worlds is difficult but seems to encourage a more complete person that is multi-focused.. 

In looking back I think that my changed relationship with my closer friends had a profound effect on the course of my life.  I rationalized much, did not have feedback on my views and made decisions based on my own conclusions.  Duh?  But it  is what I knew then, I thank God that I have learned to ask others for help, understand we do not need to be only unto ourselves , input and encouragement is good for the soul and everyday living.

Being a "Good Wife" is still a part of my life, but being the best person I can be is my goal, it fits in to my roles as being a Good--Person, Mom, Friend, Nurse, Mentor, Grandmother, Daughter,Citizen, community member and of course Wife does fit into this broadened world and completes the person I am today, more balanced, confident and faithful to my God and myself.

LIfe is good but aging does bring a few realizations.  The most importatnt to me of these life lessons is that I have always tried to do what I thought was best, but I did not always have the right information to accomplish what was best.

The key to this is that I do know I did try, and what I know today is that my choices not matter what they were , brought new opportunities and certainly did broaden my horizons.  I do like me today, and I know I am still learning, growing and changing.  Yep, I am still alive and learning. 

One More Move, Time to Cherish, Time to Remember .

It is 2 AM and here I am.  Why?  Moving is definitely harder as time marches on.. My hands ache from twisting the mop, arms are sore from pulling and stretching and so forth. Moving was physically difficult in my twenties but NOW, challenging is hardly appropriate.  However the time spent in the past months doing flexibility and strengthening work is paying off.  I can still move!....however some Advil is past due.
 You add to the necessary moving  tasks a bit of heat. (the air conditioning will not be connected until Tues.) and this adds a new dimension.  Wet t-shirt contest does not begin to describe what one looks like after moping floors in an entire house. (there is no carpeting by design)

My aches and pains awakened me but the solitude of the chaotic apartment in its transition state is soothing.  The clock is ticking reminding me how many places it has resided and how great it will be in its new home

I can hear the cat grooming herself, a peaceful and relaxing sound, seldom actually heard. Now she is purring while grooming, reminiscent of what I think would be my reaction to sinking into a lovely bubble bath. 

More than forty years ago I started on the first of my moves. 

Wisconsin to Fort Huchauca AZ.  I packed everything we owned into our VW Beetle, squeezed out a small space (even with the top of my seat for Missy, our mutt pup) and off I went.  Barley 21 years old and moving off across the country.  Too young and dumb to understand what an undertaking this was for a small town girl.  Driving across the country (alone) was an adventure and not as dangerous then for a young woman alone.

Did I have a glimmer then, that this would be only the first of many moves, many states?  No, but it did set the idea that there was a huge world and country to see.  It banished my fears of the unknown to the extent that to this day I love to explore new places and I am still driving off many times without a destination, now, just to see what is there.

That was the first and easiest of all the moves.  The contents of my life were in that auto, now it is in a van,  The van is filled with memories of a life: the loves, memories, pains, discoveries and hopes.  This week I will sort my out my life in things while I relive the intangible memories,  that accompany the things.  It will be a week of aches, tears and smiles and I look forward to the challenge.

Memorial Day 2012, a time to remember those that made my life as I know it possible,  God Bless them all.

NYC the Virgin Trip

Life is definitely too short to miss opportunities, today I boarded NJ Transit and went to Penn Station in NYC.  I have never been there before and I do admit that I faltered a little this morning by procrastinating a bit.

I got off the train and was bombarded by a sea of people, some young, some old.  There were excited faces, weary faces and frankly mean faces. I figured out how to get to the street, and while veteran commuters will scoff at this I can see how this could be daunting. This is not happening in slow motion and you have to be aware of how others are moving, unless you want to wind up in the wrong place or perhaps squashed.

The sounds are intense and varied, cars sirens, many language's all in their own special symphony.  The smells are what I will remember in my dreams.  Chestnuts and other nuts roasting, hot dogs, chicken and of course the bakeries.  I wound around so many different kinds of things while I made my way towards times square that had it not been so very crowded I would have been standing still with my mouth open in awe.

I admired the window displays, found Times Square and eventually Rockefeller Center and the Tree.
Skaters, with Santa on the ice, elves everywhere and more sounds and smells.

I saw a woman buying a "designer bag" from a canvas sack, shared my roasted chestnuts with a stranger and kept walking.  Broadway, fascinated me with the posters and vendors everywhere.  I didn't expect the carnival atmosphere that I previously associated with tropical islands at ports of call.
Tee shirts, souvenirs, and hawkers everywhere

I know now that a previous desire to want to be in Times Square for New Years Eve, is best left as a wish and replaced with a new activity.  It was difficult to move as it was today with sightseers and shoppers, my imagination of this event boggled my mind and I know it is best left to bee seen on TV.

I walked for a little over four hours, without really stopping, there was no place to perch and no real way to stop.  I didn't want to stop either, I just kept looking and absorbing.  It was a great afternoon and next time I will have a plan to see some specific things.  Today I looked, listened and absorbed.

I am glad I ventured out, tried something way out of my comfort zone, well it was, not now,  I will go back.  I may put off another walking trip until Spring but with the number of people it was impossible to be cold.

Now to rest, and remember I am not a Sissy

New Place New Things, No One is Ever Too Old NOT ME

I am totally puzzled about this thing called aging.  I am a kinder gentler version of the person I was at 25, however what has not and will probably never change is my inquisitive nature.

Many of our friends and peers are retiring and it doesn't seem like the right thing to be doing when there is so much more to do, see, and learn.  I see something and want to know more, see more etc. etc.

Given all of that and the fact that I still feel like I am thirty mentally, I have started a new venture.  I am working in New Jersey for the next few months as a consultant.  I have been an operating room nurse, worked in management and that is what I am sharing.

I have never been in New Jersey before.  I arrived on Saturday afternoon and after finally getting out of the rat's maze of roads around Newark airport made my way to Somerset, where I shall stay for the next few months.  (I will go home every other weekend, and for Christmas)

I thought the rat's maze around the airport would make me crazy, but once I was on the road I found the same drivers in New Jersey that I have observed in MS,OH, AL,FL. SC, and WI.  OK, maybe there were some worse ones in FL. I Will say no more about the drivers, I have managed to find my way around and in reasonable time.  I will do a Garmin advertisement at any time, from now on.

On Sunday I ventured off to Princeton to go to church.  I googled churches and found that one.  It was really a great experience and I will be going back.  I loved the setting the sermon and the people.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the area around Princeton and could picture my friend Peg and I going around looking a the architecture and shops.  It is the sort of place we both love.  I found myself recalling odd bits of old history lessons as I drove around.  I didn't expect to find so much country.  The landscape is lovely and I am imagining what the spring will bring.  I surmise that winter will be beautiful as well.

The working environment is exactly what is expeceted,  The peoples faces are different, like the drivers the personalities and behaviors are the same, the people I will be working with are really nice.
This part of my adventure is somewhat predictable, as much as an Operating room  can be predictable.

I will attempt to see as much of the area as I can, this is going to be a stretch for me because I am here alone and I do intend to go into NYC this weekend to see the tree in Times Square and do some simple walking in the city.  I have only use public transit in San Francisco/ Oalkand in the past.  Growing up in the Midwest there is not much mass transit and Alabama, MS etc did not offer much in that line either. I am working though being terrified and am not at a nervous level and hopefully by the weekend I will have garnered enough bravado to venture on. 

I don't know if this is foolish or not but I certainly will not learn much about the area sitting in the hotel, so off I will go.

I will look forward to seeing more of this, refreshing my memory of the history of the area.  Maybe I will learn more and actually get braver.

The point of all of this stuff is that I was told that "at my age" I am too old to travel around alone, and start a new carer venture?" 

Who ever said there is an age limit on exploration, learning or adventure?

NOT ME