Author Archives: bethpow06
FMM 3 20 2020 These Bipolar Times
“I often think the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh. One of the amazing things about the human body (and there are many) is its ability to develop immunity, over time. We have these cells who, pacman-like, chomp up invaders and then display pieces of them […]
FMM 3 13 20 Virus Ignoramus
“Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm.” ~ Thomas Fuller. I have one very clear memory of nursing during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. A young man had developed a collapsed lung, which required the insertion of a tube into his chest wall to suck the air out of the pleural space […]
FMM 3 6 2020 Nature’s Reboot
“Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” ~ Malcolm X. My first memory of realizing the awesomeness of nature, the truly astonishing wonder of it all was a view of the night sky from the deck of an ocean liner. I […]
FMM 2 28 20 Perfect Balance
“To him who is in fear everything rustles.” ~ Sophocles. I have always been fascinated by my dreams. I still have a clear memory of a dream I had as a child. I was in a forest where all of the trees were ghostly white. There may have been animals like statues, also white. The […]
FMM 2 21 2020 Who’s job is it anyway?
“In a gentle way you can shake the world.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi. My sister went to nursing school about eight years before I did, in the days when nurses wore big dresses with huge wrap-around starched aprons. By the time I enrolled in the traditional, hospital based program they had modernized the uniform to a […]
FMM 2 14 20 Sing me a Song
“My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.” ~ Ray Charles. The road trips of my early childhood included many a song. My family had a repertoire of songs which distracted and entertained on the long journey which would take us from the city […]
FMM 2 7 2020 An Age-old dilemma
“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~ Henry David Thoreau. My father Pearce was a picky eater. I don’t know when it began, but definitely by the time I was a teen I was aware of it. In restaurants he would stick to what he knew. The most adventurous he would […]
FMM 1 31 2020 Color your Perspective
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” ~ Elie Wiesel. This is my story, condensed, abridged, minimized, retold. Picture an almost eight-year-old white girl (blonde hair, blue eyes) transplanted from grey rainy Manchester along with her entire family and […]
FMM 1 24 20 Shift to Self
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn. I have a very clear memory from my childhood of an episode of pain. I had a severe ache in my leg, in the shin area, which earned me confinement to bed, and the tender ministrations […]
FMM 1 17 20 Down to Zero
“I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.” ~ Brene Brown. When one of my kids was in kindergarten or first grade, he got super frustrated doing his homework. It appeared to be something simple – he was to draw a picture of a dinosaur. But he was in tears, […]
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