Mindful Connections to Your Past

My skating Saturday took me to my old neighborhood and a visit with Marine.  Our kids were close to the same age, and she told me about her girls and their families.  At some point she touched my arm, and with tears in her eyes told me about the very first time we’d met, “You were holding baby Chandra in the front yard”.  We talked, laughed, shared stories, and I left skating the old neighborhood following kid memories of birthday parties, Cub & Brownie meeting, but mindful of my skating.   Sunday it was too wet to skate, so I walked.  Mid-walk I found a rose climbing a wall, and was brushed again by Marine’s tears, through the roses’ beauty.  Mix joy memories this week with present moment’s mindfully connected to your past.      

The Power of Words

I could barely walk, couldn’t drive, and so took the bus to work.  By mid-morning I was in an orthopedic clinic getting an x-ray.  After waiting what felt like hours, I went to the door to hear the doctor say, “I have a man with a broken back and I need a…”, he turned saw me standing, rushed to my side and gently laid me back down on the examining table and I didn’t walk again for over a year.  Words that change our lives, “Billy your mom is dying”, “Bill your dad just died”, “Mr. Baun, you have aggressive prostate cancer”, “I love you!”, and “you have progressive metastatic cancer in the pelvic lymph nodes”.  Words might change our journey, but they don’t have to change who we are or who we become.  How will you choose to react to life today?

Awesome Power of Love

I was raised in a very active church family.  My dad was always superintendent of something and ran the church kitchen, and my mom was the lead kindergarten teacher for Sunday school, and the day school.  We sat in the same spot, on the same pew every Sunday, left front 7 pews back, right next to the choir loft, so my mom could sing along with the choir.  I remember her funeral for many reasons, but one that haunted me for years was that we were in the wrong pew.  The week after her funeral I went back to our Church several times and sat in our pew, held her hymnal and listen to her sing.  Never doubt the awesome power of love. 

Be Open to Sacred Moments

The car accident in 1976 left my back shattered in several places and millimeters away from severing my spinal cord.  The operation fused all my lumbar vertebrae, but L5, and the surgeon warned me it would probably go at some point.  Years later on Christmas Eve I had surgery on the L5 disc, and woke up alone in the wee hours of Christmas day.  My body memory felt the pain of the first surgery; I was so scared and wanted a hug so bad.  With tears streaming down my face I said out loud to no one, “I need a hug”, and immediately got the warmest, deepest hug I’d ever felt, a sacred moment with my Maker, I will never forget.  Be open to the resurrection of sacred moments. 

Scared Moments

I woke in the mid-80’s standing on a branch at the top of a 120 foot pine tree in Grass Valley, CA.  It’s a bit like riding a gentle ocean wave, as the top sways with the hot wind.  There are 15 of us in a Project Adventure training week, gaining insight into experienced based learning, and ourselves.  I step off into space and immediately feel the rope catch in the carabineer at my waist.  I’d rappelled out of helicopters in the Army, but never with a Navajo belaying my journey.  My team is all Navajo school teachers, and I learned more about life and myself through them than our trainer.  They taught me everything is sacred from the tiny bluebird to majestic pine tree, and living with the sacred opens us up to each moment.  Today, be open to sacred moments. 

Listen Through Your Heart

One block from my house is a florist and Sunday the flowers and heart shape wreaths were gone, and bouquets of deflated balloons were scattered across the lawn.  I know my love is not a one day event, but there are days in my busyness I don’t slow down enough to lean into those I love and listen with my heart.  MaryBeth and I shared brunch on our front porch with Valentine’s Day tulips and I snapped this picture.  The camera leaned into the tulip on the right and made it the focus point.  This year, lean into those you love and listen through your heart. 

Nursing & Compassion

Yesterday, I worked as the welcoming doorman for the MD Anderson Nurse Recruitment fair.  My station was between the garage and the elevator that took them to the fair.  In their faces you could feel excitement, but also the compassionate energy that defines nursing.  Juxtaposed on my surreal feelings were visitors, family members and patients leaving the hospital in wheelchairs, wearing face masks, or carrying oxygen bottles, suitcases, and thick folders.  The world needs more servant leaders who have an innate ability to care, listen, and bring hope through compassion.  This special full moon Valentine’s Day, THANK A NURSE!