Friday, October 26, 2007

keep it real.....

Something was revealed to me today. It was unintentional on the part of the other party. However, the ugliness unwittingly rose to the surface. Someone I have known for the better part of 6 years failed to share something with me….a very important little detail. Lying by omission is still lying. A friendship may not recover.

I have a low tolerance for untruthfulness. I experienced a lot of it in my past. Basically, I got a gut full. I would much rather be given the truth in any and all circumstances. Hurting from truth is a lot less painful that hurting from an elaborate web of lies that wraps itself around you, leaving you in wait for the life to be sucked out of you.

In my Client/Therapist class last quarter, I learned a great deal about speaking from the truth of who I am. It’s very empowering and people always know where they stand when they’re in your presence. Try it….it works.

Friday, October 19, 2007



displacement.....





I drive down Wilson Pike Circle to get to school. Monday night I had to stop at the rail road crossing not to allow a train to pass, but to wait for two very large does to cross. Behind them....a lush field of nothing but green. Ahead...businesses and the traffic of Brentwood. I've been thinking about this scenario all week.

A child's first day at preschool (or any school for that matter.) The first day at a new job. A man or woman who's been served divorce papers. Someone who's found out their job has been done away with. Anyone who hears the words "It's cancer." This is all displacement. Traveling from a place of safety into the uncertainty of the unknown.

The deer had the opportunity to turn around and return to the lushness of the field. Humans are rarely afforded that luxury. This thought of displacement has been heavy on my spirit this week. So much so that when I see someone that is moving from safety into fear of the unknown, I've decided to do what I can to make that transition easier....even if it simply means a hand on a shoulder, a hug, a smile or comforting words.

Saturday, October 13, 2007


memories...light the corners of my mind
My favorite aunt is 16 years older than me. She toted me around (or "hipped" me as she calls it) until I got too big to carry.
We lived in Springfield, MO when I was young and on the square was this fabulous movie theater called The Fox.
The very best thing about The Fox Theater was the fact that it had a balcony!! My aunt took me to see every Disney movie that came out and, you guessed it, we would hit the balcony. The view was just so great from up there! Lady & The Tramp, The Jungle Book and every Herbie movie ever made looked amazing from our vantage point. The balcony was a world of it's own and when I visit my childhood memories, this is one of my all time favorites.
When my children were small, I made it a point to purchase all the great old Disney movies on VHS in hopes my children would share in some of that same magic I experienced. To them, the living room and mom's lap was every bit as magical as that balcony was to me.
The Fox Theater has been closed for years now. What I wouldn't give for one more viewing from that special place.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

thursday giggles and grins....

Because of my warped sense of humor, I find the majority of these hysterically funny!

Actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

27. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

28. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

western medicine vs. the holistic approach...

Tuesday, a lymph node on the back of my neck became inflamed. By the next day, pain was shooting up the back of my head. Now, I know a lot of things and what I don't know, I look up. In 46 years of life, I know enough to know I've got some kind of infection.

So yesterday at lunch I run to the Vanderbilt Walk-in Clinic that is close to the office. Convenient AND they take my insurance. I complete the paperwork and am called into the back in just a matter of minutes. The nurse takes my vitals and I tell her what's going on with me. She steps out and in a matter of minutes, the doctor is with me. This is going great! Give me a 'script for antibiotics and let me go already! He does the standard quiz, looks in my throat and ears, listens to my breathing and sits back down to zap of a 'script to the local Walgreen's. Does he give me antibiotics? No. NO??? He gives me a decongestant/expectorant and Nasonex. Nevermind that my head is clear and snot free. Okay...he's gone to school. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Walgreens and $54 later, I'm cussing him like a sailor. I take my meds and pray for healing.

This morning.....

Still in pain AND another lymph node below my ear is swollen so large that I resemble Quasi Moto!!! Oh heck to the no! Bendy, this one is up to you and God. So I look through my essential oils and grab the eucalyptus. I slather it all over the swelling and finish getting ready for work. Hmmmmm guess what? ALL my swelling is almost gone. The oil opened up the nodes and allowed drainage of the infection. I can't take credit for it...that goes to the Big Guy. However, the next time before I fork over a $30 copay and $54 for meds, I'm trying the natural approach!!