Monday, November 23, 2015

Thanksgiving


Right now my elbow and hand hurts like crazy and it is very painful to type.  Our country seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket.  And winter is coming!  It is hard to be thankful when terrorists are attacking people everywhere, and I feel like our government has either lost touch with reality, or simply doesn't care about the people they represent.  I feel crabby about all this PC business, how people get offended, I feel like I have to be so careful of what I do or say, for I know I am outspoken and unable to fake it.  But maybe I could look at all this in a different way.

Yes, I have pain.  But I don't have any pinched nerves in my neck, so that is good.  And I am trying a new therapy next week, trigger point dry needling, so maybe that will help.

Yes, winter is coming.  But so is the holiday season, which I love.  And maybe I wouldn't appreciate the summer so much if we didn't have winter.

Yes, there are terrorists.  But there have always been terrorists, and always will.  They are just bullies with lethal weapons.  They only know hate, but I know love.  They only feel hate, but I feel love.

Yes, we are too PC, and I am too outspoken.  But maybe this awareness will help me to be thoughtful and use my words accordingly.  I don't always have to share my opinion.  Sometimes its best to keep my mouth shut.  I just need to think before I speak.

Yes, my government doesn't represent me.  But America is still the greatest country on God's green earth.  

Therefore, there is a lot I can be thankful for.  Family, God, my health, my safety, my education, my career.  I have a home, I have freedom.  I have all that I need and more.  I am rather spoiled.  

And I am thankful that I was born in this time and in this place.  For my life could have been so different, and not in a good way.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

I Still Believe


Every Friday night staring at 5 pm, KTIS (98.5) starts playing people's "I Believe" statements that they call in, while they play I believe theme songs throughout the night. My favorite song is I Still Believe by Russ Taff.

I was driving to my parents house last Friday, with Popeye's chicken smelling good in the car, with tears streaming down my face as I thought of the terror attacks in Paris.  It affected me so, partly because I was sick and when I am sick I also am more emotional.  But also because I was in Paris during 9-11, and I love Paris.  I so felt for the people there, and I despaired of this never-ending battle against Islam extremists would ever be over.

So I turned the radio to KTIS and here came this song.  My tears turned to tears of hope, tears of belief.  So even back then, I decided I wanted this week's post to be my belief statements, in the hopes that someone else would be encouraged and not despair.

I BELIEVE:
God is in control.
I have assurance of salvation because of the blood of Christ.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of man.
There is no other god besides God, Yahweh, Jehovah.
God is with me.
Jesus means God Saves.
God will never leave me nor forsake me.
The Holy Spirit is within me.
Jesus was born of a virgin, crucified for our sins, and raised from the dead.
The Holy Word of God.
God created the earth, and all that is in it.
Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will Provide.
God is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.
Salvation is a gift from God to be received by each one of us.
I am saved through grace, not through my good works.
God is perfect, I am not.
God knows what is happening.
God is bigger than the terrorists.  He has won the war against evil.
God's Word is true, always and forever.
God is love.  God is good.  God is great.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Veteran's Day


Two days ago was Veteran's Day.  It seems as the wars in the Middle East go on, the more we remember those who fight and die for our freedoms.  And not only ours, but for those who have never had a taste of it, this freedom that we take for granted.

For it is easy to sit here in our comfortable homes and criticize how the wars are being fought.  It is easy for the political pundits in D.C. to make decisions when it really doesn't affect them.  

But it is not easy for those in the front lines.  Those for whom, day in and day out, fight a war that their government back home tells them they can't win.

But they keep fighting, until the last man leaves for home.  They won't give up, or let their brothers' deaths be in vain.  

That is why I am so proud to be an American.  Because I live in the home of the free, because of the brave.  Because of those men and women, who never give up, who fight valiantly 'til the end. They know what a precious gift is freedom, and they will do anything to keep it.  

Every day should be Veteran's Day.  It should be more than one puny day in a whole year.  It should be everyday.  Everyday we rise up with the dawn, everyday we lie down at dusk.  Everyday we wake to greet the sun, everyday we can go to our safe, warm beds and sleep a peaceful slumber.

It is because of these brave men and women, that we can do these things.  Let us not forget, but be thankful, with hearts of gratitude.  Let us raise the banner of freedom high.  Let us never be ashamed.  Let freedom reign!



Thursday, November 5, 2015

The Walk: Be the Bridge

The Walk: Be the Bridge is a YouTube speech that Jenny Hill gave at Northwestern College last year, during their Disability Awareness Week.  As you may or may not know, Jenny wrote an excellent and thought-provoking memoir about her life as a woman with a disability.  She expressed the exact same feelings that I always felt but never expressed.  I'm not sure why, maybe shame, maybe fear, maybe not wanting to upset others.  I encourage you to read this book.



As I watched this I also thought how nice for the college to have this.  I don't remember any college that I went to to have a disability awareness event.   Neither do I recall any sort of disability awareness week or month in our country.  They have these events for all other minorities.  Why not disability?  Is it because it is a scary or ugly topic?  We live in the shadows, partly hoping we never get noticed, partly wishing we did.  Until this is recognized by the larger population, and celebrated even, it will never change.  Sure, we have Special Olympics.  But I think the difference is those of us without intellectual disabilities feel left out somehow.  We feel in the middle of two extremes.  We are not part of the developmentally delayed group.  Nor are we part of the "normal" group.  We are somewhere in the middle.  We are cute when we are young, but when we group up and see our peers doing "normal" things without us, we don't know what to do.  Nor does anyone else.  We are like the elderly, less respected, needing some help but not totally, and lonely.



So please watch this video, and think upon it.  Think about what it is like to be us.  It is not to shame you or to make you feel guilty.  You can feel good about not having a disability.  But you can also see us as we really are, look past the luggage we are traveling in, and see what is packed inside.  We are human.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Finally...


My dad is OK!  He came home last weekend, after a week in the hospital and a week in a nursing home.  He had hip replacement surgery, and 3 days after the CNA gave him a shower, of which she left him alone while she talked on her phone outside the bathroom.  Consequently, he fell.  But he is OK, aside from some bumps and bruises.  We think he fainted as he literally slid down the wall of the shower.  Unbeknownst to all of us, he was low on blood.  I can't imagine that no one knew this.  He had to spend 2 extra days in the hospital for tests and transfusion.  This hospital was not the best.  The light in the bathroom didn't work.  He did not get his pain meds when he was supposed to.  His call nurse pager didn't work.  His injury back in May was so complicated that the only doctors who treated this type of injury practiced at this hospital, the only place, besides the U of MN, that takes patients without insurance.  The moral of the story, if you don't need to be at HCMC, don't go there!  

But he is home now, Minnie the dog is happy to have her master back, and we are all relieved.  Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.  There were a lot of cards and gifts. There was lots of help from the men in our lives.  It is all greatly appreciated, and we are so very thankful.  Thank you for being faithful friends, faithful prayer warriors.  Most of all I give the glory to God, for He watched over my dad and brought him home!