Saturday, December 27, 2008

Recommended to Anyone with a Heart

I know my enthusiasm is suspect to some of you because it comes so often and intensely but I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, joyous about the book My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor.
I first heard about Dr. Jill from my friends Candace and Donna at our study group. They told me to google Jill Bolte Taylor and watch her video clip. I did and was quite moved. I put her name in my blog's video clips.
The more I listened to her talk about her stroke and what she, as a neuroanatomist, learned from it and her eight year recovery, the more I wanted to read her book. So I ordered it. It came on Christmas Day by way of a neighbor who got it at his address by mistake. In fact, Donna was here at my house to receive it since she was dog-sitting Petey for the day while Sharon, John and I were off in the P.T. to spend Christmas with A.J., Wendy, & Ray. I read it yesterday and now I want to order dozens of them to give out. But at $15 a crack, I probably won't. BUT, I'm hoping you will all get a copy of it and read it. It's amazing. There are five in the Cochise County Library system (all but one is checked out at the moment I write this).
I quote from pg. 139: "My two hemispheric personalities not only think about things differently, but they process emotions and carry my body in easily distinguishable ways. ... My right hemisphere is all about right here and now. It bounces around with unbridled enthusiasm and does not have a care in the world. It smiles a lot and is extremely friendly. In contrast, my left hemisphere is preoccupied with details and runs my life on a tight schedule. It is my more serious side. It clenches my jaw and makes decisions based upon what it learned in the past. It defines boundaries and judges everything as right/wrong or good/bad. ...
My right mind is all about the richness of this present moment. It is filled with gratitude for my life and everyone and everything in it. It is content, compassionate, nurturing, and eternally optimistic. To my right mind character, there is no judgment of good/bad or right/wrong, so everything exists on a continuum of relativity." ... "One of the greatest blessings I received as a result of this hemorrhage is that I had the chance to rejuvenate and strengthen my neurocircuits of innocence and inner joy."
I had a minor stroke almost six years ago and ever since have been fearful of the possibility that I would have another more severe one. Now I am not afraid. Thank you Dr. Jill.

Monday, December 22, 2008

A Scottish Fable


To Keep Them Warm: A Scottish Fable
adapted by Carol Byron May 2001
from Gazetteer of Scottish & Irish Ghosts
by Peter Underwood published in 1972


Once upon a time, a loving wife and mother, Annie McVee,
died of a sudden illness, leaving two children; Harold and Eleanor,
aged five and seven who now had only their hard-working father,
Alex McVee, to look after them.

The children helped with chores as their father had much work
to do on the farm. He worked from dawn to dusk. He and the
children missed their wife and mother, Annie, very much.

One of the father’s friends, Tommy, had an older sister, Jane,
who never married. When this sister was quite young, she lost
an eye. Several red-hot embers from her family’s fireplace
flew out and hit her face when her brother Tommy had carelessly
tossed a log on the fire she was sitting next to. Their mother’s
comment at the time had been, “Thank goodness the ember
didn’t strike the boy.” The sister’s missing eye had disfigured
her face and made her bitter, although she was known as a
hard worker in the neighborhood.

Encouraged by his friend, Alex, the father, married the sister
with one eye, so that the children would have a mother and the
meals and the house would be taken care of. As a new stepmother,
Jane treated the children meanly. Perhaps this was because
her own mother treated her meanly. “Children cannot be
pampered, if they are to grow up responsible,” was her favorite
expression.

Jane also resented the first wife’s treasured household goods.
For example, one of the children’s mother’s prized possessions
had been a large supply of blankets and linens. As new wife,
Jane stored these sheets and blankets away in her hope chest
under lock and key.The nights got colder as summer turned to
autumn. The one-eyed mean stepmother refused to bring out
the warm blankets for the children’s bed.

All they had on their bed was a few worn-out rags. By the time
winter settled in, the children had to huddle together every
night, shivering with the cold, until they fell asleep. Jane,
of course, had a very warm blanket on her own bed.

Eleanor prayed to their mother to help keep them warm
and a strange thing began to happen. Each morning, when
the children woke up, much to their surprise, they found
themselves wrapped cozy and warm in their mother’s
blankets. Their stepmother was livid.

She screamed at them and smacked them up side their heads
in frustration. But she knew in her heart that the only key
to the chest where the blankets were locked was safely hidden
under her own pillow.

Then one cold winter’s night, young Harold fell asleep quickly
but Eleanor could not. She was so cold, so bitter cold, that she
lay wake shivering, deep into the night. Suddenly, the bedroom
door opened, and Eleanor saw a ghostly lady dressed in a long
shimmering white dress. As the lady approached, the lock
on the chest sprang open and she brought out two blankets
and lovingly wrapped the children in them.

As the lady leaned down to kiss the children, Eleanor
recognized her mother, Annie. Eleanor whispered, “Mother?”
but the ghostly figure turned away and vanished into the
darkness. When Eleanor told her family what she had seen,
the stepmother relented and allowed the children to have
their mother's blankets.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Peace to the Human Race


Continuing the third to first person 'quotes' from Wayne Dyer's "Your Erroneous Zones":

My values are not local. I do not identify with my family, neighborhood, community, city, state (or province), or country. I see myself as belonging to the human race, and an unemployed Austrian is no better or worse than an unemployed Californian. I am not patriotic to a certain boundary; rather I see myself as a part of the whole of humanity. I take no glee in having more enemy dead, since the enemy is as human as the ally. The lines drawn by men to describe how one should be affiliated are not subscribed to by me. I transcend traditional boundaries, which often causes others to label me a rebel or even traitor.

This is my ideal, but in my heart is a strong love of my childhood country - Canada - and the good people I grew up with there who were mostly Scots descent. Of course, I no longer live there or think they are the only or best of God's children. The native peoples of the U.S. and Mexico are as dear to me as my old Scottish families were. So I grow toward this ideal.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Grateful Grandmother


My ASD grandson, A. J., has a heart valve that came from a pig. I wonder what, if any, influence that has on him? Since valve implants don’t grow with the child, this is his third. The first valve was from a baby whose parent’s donated her heart after she died in an accident. (We are sad for them but grateful to them.) The second was a mechanical valve (for this we are grateful to the surgeon and inventor), and this last one, as I say, came from a pig (to whom we are also grateful). Apparently, pigs have many similarities to humans in their body parts.
There was great confusion at the time of A.J.’s birth, both for the doctors and his mother and I. The doctors were trying to determine all the defects he had. The missing valve was the most life-threatening. During his first week in the Intensive Nursery we were told he would probably be blind, deaf, and severely mentally handicapped. Well, the good news was that he wasn’t blind or deaf.
He did have difficulty in eating; swallowing actually. He was on a G-tube for four years. He also had difficulty breathing, so had to have a tracheotomy. He kept that device in for two years. Eating and breathing difficulties, plus a missing heart valve made tough challenges for his mom in his upbringing. He has generally a sunny temperament; in fact, he has a large fan club. When he was a toddler he was exceptionally handsome. That could be the grandmother in me talking, but we have photos.
A.J. celebrated his nineteenth birthday this year. His body is no longer a child’s body. He is still limited in his diet choices and runs to bean pole stature. His greatest difficulty now is being understood. His mom has completed the guardianship process.
Like any other teenager, A.J. is frustrated that people don’t understand him. His speech, even after years of therapy and specialists and exercises, is difficult for most people to understand. Certain phrases come out clear enough like, “Start your engines!” Need I add he’s a NASCAR fan? Also he says with a laugh, “I’m watching you!” and expects you to say you’re watching him too. Clear phrases like these are often from things that initially frightened him. Unlike other teens, he is physically unable to make himself understood for even the simplest statement of need or desire. He is not trying to break away and live his own life like other eighteen year olds; for A.J. is unlikely to be leaving home and setting up an independent life of his own. He has no affinity for the written word except for making his own name: A.J.
He does have an established routine and many activities he enjoys. Life is mostly good for A.J. and his family loves him dearly. We are grateful.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Open to the Grace of the Rose




The rose encodes purity and passion, earthly desire
and heavenly perfection,
virginity and fertility, life and death.
The rose is a symbol that can tie us together
as a whole brotherhood of mankind.
White roses are the unclouded hopes of a pure heart
and good judgement over selfish passion.
The female white rose concerns purity and innocence, acceptance,
unconditional love.

The male red rose, when married to the white,

becomes the basis of magic and the metamorphosis of the soul - the means by which we distill the divine in ourselves.






Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Change Your Mind




Quoting Bernie Siegel on Peace of Mind:


"My message is peace of mind, not curing cancer, blindness, or paraplegia.
In achieving peace of mind, cancer may be healed,
sight may be restored, and paralysis may disappear.
All these things may occur through peace of mind, which creates a healing environment
in the body.
Anyone who is willing to work at it can achieve it, and the first step is understanding - realistically, without guilt or self-pity - how the mind has contributed to the body's ills.

This understanding can show you how you must change to be at peace with yourself."