Blessed Be These Hands

Blessed Be These Hands, Blessed Be These Voices

 Happy Nurses Week! This is the third year I have posted this. 

 

Blessed Be These Hands....

 Nurses' Week begins on May 6th and ends with  Florence Nightingale's birthday on May 12th.  It is a time to honor nurses and , for that matter, all caregivers who fulfill the role of nurse.

 I have been blessed to know many, many wonderful nurses in my lifetime.  Some taught me to use my hands, my heart and my head to minister to the sick.  Some worked along side me, encouraging, supporting, nurturing me through my career. Some became my closest friends, forming a special bond forged in the fire of our challenging profession.   Some cared for family members and brought healing to them and when healing was no longer possible, they comforted my loved ones.   Someday, I have no doubt,  nurses will care for me with kindness and compassion when I am in need of  their special healing touch.

   John O'Donoghue, an Irish poet, suggested in his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, that we don't need a minister or a priest to invoke a blessing.  We can and should bless one another. In honor of all the nurses who minister daily to the old, the young, the terminally ill and all  recovering bodies and souls, I offer this blessing.  It is part of the American Holistic Nurses Association's yearly celebration, to be held this year on May 12 at 12 noon and called  'The Nightingale Moment.'

                                               Nurses’ Hands

Blessed be these hands that have touched life.

Blessed be these hands that have felt pain.

Blessed be these hands that have embraced with compassion.

Blessed be these hands that have been clinched with anger or withdrawn in fear. 

Blessed be these hands that have drawn blood and administered medicine. 

Blessed be these hands that have cleaned beds and disposed of wastes.

Blessed be these hands that have anointed the sick and offered blessings. 

Blessed be these hands that grow stiff with age.

Blessed be these hands that have comforted the dying and held the dead. 

Blessed be these hands, we hold the future in these hands.

Blessed be our hands for they are the work of Your hands, O Holy One. 

The Nightingale Moment, May 12 Blessing of the Hands 

On May 12, 2000 at 12 noon after a moment of silence AHNA members Mary Gorka, RN, CHTP, Charlottesville, Virginia networker and Cindy Westley, RN, MSN, HNC, University of Virginia Medical Center, Community Services Coordinator, along with Joan Murray, Chaplain at UVA, and a former nurse at the Medical Center of the University of Virginia gave a local blessing of hands to nurses. That year, other Chaplains joined in to lead a wonderful effort in support of nursing. This tradition has been continued each year as way to celebrate the Nightingale Moment and honor the spirit of holistic nursing. Copies of the blessing were given to those who attended the ceremony to take back to their units to extend the blessings. The blessing is a responsive reading, leader says one line, the group the next. 

This Blessing of the Hands is from In Praise of Hands, Diann Neu, Waterwheel, Winter 1989. Adapted by Corlette Pierson, Pastoral Care Resident at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, IL. This Blessing of the Hands may be copied and used for Nightingale Moment activities, but is not intended to be sold. 

Thought For Today :  I am thankful for all the wonderful nurses with whom I have shared my life's journey and I pray for and remember them in a special way this week.

April Gifts

This morning I woke up at 5:50 AM and stumbled out to the sunroom to watch the sun come up.  It was still quite dark and the first thing I noticed was the bright morning star  still twinkling in the fading darkness.  I heard (a very early) wren singing at the top of it's joyful lungs.  Grabbing my first cup of tea, I had a few minutes to enjoy the silence of dawn and count my blessings.  

Within a few minutes one of my most delightful blessings came out to join me.  My 9 month old grandson was wide awake and gurgling with that early morning joy that babies always seem to have.  He and his parents have been staying with us since shortly after Christmas and they are set to move into their new home in time for Easter, so my days of seeing him every day are numbered and more precious than ever.

Since this was Day 2 of spring-like weather, I grabbed my camera and went to inspect the garden after MG left for his first nap of the day. (How blessed is he?) The early morning light brought a soft glow to the trees that surround my yard and I can almost hear the new buds setting themselves free, at long last.

I found evidence that the peonies survived the winter, their gangly red heads poking through the recently softened earth.

The Siberian scilla, my favorite shade of blue, have been blooming for a few days but they looked especially handsome in the sunlight this morning.

My spring hunt for signs of life turned up a few Solomon's Seal, one of the hardiest plants around.  It is a woodland wild flower which will spread nicely in the shade.

Yesterday there was no yellow in the whole yard, but today----LET THERE BE SPRING !!! The daffodils have opened, there is yellow everywhere and all is right with the world!

We are moving our herb garden this spring which entails digging up a new garden.  The old spot has grown too shady in the past few years (perfect for the patio I envision) so the herbs are moving into the sun.  My sweet digger plans to begin this project soon.  I'll keep you posted.

Two Years Old And Still Living In The Moment!

So, guess what?  The Healthy Nut is two years old!   My first post, went live on March 30, 2012.  Since then I have written over 200 posts here.

As I reread my original post about what was important to me in 2012, I realized that the act of making that list at the outset (Welcome to the Healthy Nut) was instrumental in keeping me on track---with my life as well as with the blog. Writing helps me figure out what I am thinking.

My goal to establish a consistent writing practice has been realized. I am writing poetry everyday.  Along with a new-found interest in making art in conjunction with my poems by digitally manipulating some of my photos, this daily practice brings great joy and many gifts into my life.  It is amazing to (re)discover an interest that was long dormant and begin to 'play' with art materials again.  Is this what is meant by a second childhood?  I hope so. My poems have found a home here - Wabi Sabi---poems and images.

In the past four years, since retiring, I have completed a formation program in Spiritual Direction. I have grown and continue to grow into this ministry in ways that are not easy to articulate.

 Spending time in contemplative prayer nourishes me as I try to carry the love and compassion I receive from a merciful God with me throughout the day.  I look for God in all things, and often find evidence of this Creator in the natural world around me. Whenever I have the opportunity, I take photos of these grace-filled moments. I post these meditations on another site, which is a rather new project, still evolving.  If you want to peek at that journey or come along with me, you can find my meditations here: Take Off Your Sandals.

As for this blog, as you can see,  I have given it a bit of a cosmetic make-over for spring.  I will continue to post here willy-nilly and write about the  things that bring me joy and contribute to my healthy outlook on this second half of my life.

My family, especially my husband, children and grandchildren,  gardening, photography, hiking in the woods and at the beach, looking for birds,  growing and using herbs for health and seasoning, reading, exercising and staying healthy.....all of these activities as well as updates on the adventures of Amma and Pappa, will continue to receive attention on these pages.

This morning, it was raining at six AM, hailing at seven.  By eight it had started to snow. We had an inch of slushy snow on the ground by ten.  Now,(3 PM) the snow is gone, the sun is out and the temperature is heading for 50.  Which only proves one thing. Life can change at a moment's notice. Why not embrace whatever comes and discover the joy in it?

March 31 AM

March 31 PM

Take Away - Accept whatever comes, with open arms.

Crow Moon Haiga

Northern Native American tribes referred to the full moon of March as the Crow Moon.  The crows were heard again after the long silence of winter and this always heralded spring.

Birds of a Feather...

Last weekend, we decided to get outdoors to walk a few miles.  The air was finally warming up and, though spring was still not in the air, Saturday was a gorgeous day.  We headed for West End Beach to walk the dunes and look for the snowy owls that have been sighted along the south shore all winter.

We walked out to the jetty along the fishermen's path and then meandered along the jetty toward the western edge of Jones Beach where the ocean meets the inlet.  It was windy and the surf was quite rough.

This area is fairly remote in winter and we only passed one or two other walkers.  As we approached the point, I noticed a large flock of birds at the water's edge.  They looked like sandpipers from a distance.  The birds were in 'formation,' all facing into the wind - south west.

There must have been hundreds of them all standing on one leg with their heads tucked back out of the wind.    I crept closer and closer to grab a few photos and I could hear  their chattering noises.  The tide was coming in and after a few minutes, they took off all together and flew back and forth in front of me.

 Each time they approached where I was standing they parted momentarily into two groups, rejoining one another over the ocean and returning to the beach together to land.  They did this several times and each time I felt like I was part of the flock, being completely surrounded by them.

Another birdwatcher, who arrived as we were leaving the area to head for the dunes to see if we could glimpse a snowy owl, told us these long beaked shore birds are called dunlins, a common bird in our area, although not one that we are familiar with.

He also pointed out a group of birders on the dunes who were observing a snowy owl.  We walked toward that spot on the beach, some distance from where we were, and caught a glimpse of the snowy owl as it took off, still quite far from us.  We missed a close-up of it, but did enjoy the flock of dunlins, if that is what they were.

The sun was extremely bright and I had some difficulty focusing my camera due to the light. I can not see the settings in bright sunlight.  These photos aren't great but they are what I got and they will remind me of how it felt to be surrounded by a flock of graceful birds on Saturday afternoon in  winter!

Does anyone know if these are dunlins?