Peace

I like what my pastor said recently.
He wasn't talking about me, I don't think, but what he said "fit".
"Sometimes you need to speak of where you have been, so you can appreciate where you are in order to get where you are going."


Another way of saying it is in the words of my psychologist from decades ago, "If you speak aloud of your hate, it will shrink into anger and if you speak honestly of that anger it will shrink into hurt and you will understand yourself better and be able to deal with the hurt.  The bottom line is always hurt."



It has been a good year of growth for me.       

         

I have spoken and now I am reconciled to the kindness that is there.


Someone said recently, "My goal is to see you reconciled."
I knew not what that meant, but now I feel it.
It is peace.

I have taken down certain posts and I ask your forgiveness if I have ever hurt you.








Merry Christmas,
                            Peace on Earth,
                                                    and Good Will To Mankind.

Riverwatch

Just how badly do you want that pill?

re-post for the newcomers to this blog of a popular post I first posted  in October of 2012

Just how badly do you want that pill?

I am not a fan of pharmaceuticals.

I'm a nurse, I thought about becoming a pharmacist, and I really wanted to be a teacher.  These three interests have come together to make me a very informed consumer when it comes to medications, and an outspoken critic of bad and missing information given to consumers of meds......many of whom are seniors.

When I was 21, already an RN with a career, I suddenly developed thrombophlebitis in both legs.  I was sent off duty to bedrest & my excellent physician ordered the medication Butazolidin Alka for me. Within two days I was having weird attacks of chills.  Being a nurse I screamed for help immediately.  My excellent doctor came to my home and immediately stopped the new brand-name medication, drew a vial of blood from my arm and left.  It turned out I had a life-threatening side-effect of Butazoldin Alka: hemolytic anemia.  My red blood cells were rupturing.

I was one of the lucky ones.  Withdrawing the medication saved my life (though I required treatment for the anemia).  Some other consumers across the nation were not so lucky.  For some people the hemolysis of red blood cells did not stop even when the medication was withdrawn, and death ensued.

Eventually, Butazolidin Alka was taken off the market.  Remember, when I took it, it was on the market.  Thank you, Drug Company, for all those "comprehensive" test studies before you sold it to me!!!  Can't tell you how great it was being one of your unsuspecting uninformed human guinea pigs.....and paying you money for the "privilege".

The testing of medications before being "FDA approved" involves small numbers of patients.  Once the "approved" medication is released to the general public, the real testing begins.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, complications from prescription medication use is the 4th Leading Cause of Death in the USA.

In  2006 a report by Dr. Gary Lull revealed nearly 800,000 Americans die every year as the result of medicine made by pharmaceutical companies.
That same year, 2006, the pharmaceutical industry was listed as the  #1 most profitable industry in Fortune 500 !!!!!!!!

We teach our kids to "Just Say No To Drugs".

That is excellent advice to us, too.

It is possible to say "No, thank you," to a physician.  Especially to things like statins.  Our grandparents never took a statin and probably ate hogs for breakfast.....and most of our grandparents did not drop  dead from high cholesterol.  Yes, eventually they died, but no pharmaceutical company got rich on their fears.

Take a walk.

Consider leaving the statins alone.

Remember Baycol ( a statin by Bayor)?  In the four years it was on the market (1997 -  2001) it caused 100,000 deaths.

My excellent physician and I have an agreement:  I only accept prescriptions for generic meds.   Brand name drugs lose their patent after 12 years and become relatively cheaper generics.  By that time, hundreds of thousands of guinea-pig-people have consumed the brand name medication.....and we get a better picture of which meds need withdrawn from the market due to causing deaths, liver failure, kidney failure, deafness, blindness, psychotic break-downs, suicides.....on and on and on.  And which are safe.  And which get BLACK BOX WARNINGS.

Fen-Phen was taken off the market after 24 years,

Vioxx was taken off after 6 years.....

....heck, even Heroin used to be approved by the FDA....opps all the patients got addicted!  Let's take back our approval!........oh, let's arrest those people who peddle the stuff now that we don't approve it!

"FDA Approved" means very little.

I am not saying never take meds prescribed by an excellent physician.

I am just saying, be informed and look out for yourself.
Don't be afraid to ask for more education and explanation....or even ask for time to think about it while you bone up on it yourself before deciding yes or no.

By the way, it does not help to get a second opinion from a doc about this (unless the doc is a close and loving relative to you) .  In my experience, physicians are under the charm of the big drug companies.

Get your second opinion from your pharmacist.  Pharmacists know more about meds than docs do and are under no illusions about the FDA and the drug companies.
Docs know more about you.  Pharmacists know more about drugs.
Ask the pharmacist if there is a generic medication similar to the brand-name med ordered by your doctor.  Call your doctor's nurse and ask to have a generic med substitued and the nurse can fax the new order to the pharmacy.

Just how badly do I want that pill?

"What will happen to me if I do NOT take this pill?"
"Is there something I can do to help my health other than take this pill?"
"Is there a cheaper version or cheap relative of this pill if I must have this kind of medication?"
"If I must take it, would a lower dose be effective?"

Be captain of your ship.

"Brand name" is great in clothes, risky in medications.
Sure, if I am already dying and an experiment is needed, go ahead with the experiment of a brand new "cadillac" medication on me.
Other than that, give me the cheaper safer version about which much is already known.

Riverwatch, RN

PS       I always take my blood pressure pill....always.

putting it into perspective and rehydration salts

Please keep this in mind when looking at "plagues":

There are 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 cases of cholera yearly.

100,000-120,000 deaths yearly are from cholera.

Deaths from cholera are generally caused by dehydration.

The World Health Organizations states that some home products can be used to treat and prevent dehydration. 

REHYDRATION SALTS 

A home-made solution of one liter of plain water with table salt (one level teaspoonful) and  common sugar (three tablespoons) can be made.

     Quart of Water

    Salt

Tablespoons

Sugar

The homemade solution should have the "taste of tears.

If available, supplemental zinc and potassium can be added to or given with the homemade solution.

Also, salted rice water, salted yogurt drink, and salted vegetable or chicken soup can be used.

  And a medium amount of salt can also be added to water in which cereal has been cooked, unsalted soup, green coconut water, unsweetened weak tea, and unsweetened fruit juice. 

Treatment with rehydration salts is also lifesaving in the early stages of Ebola infection.

Thanks for stopping by,

Riverwatch, RN

Thank you for your effort

Subject: The Bagpiper

        Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of life.

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man.

He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral people had evidently gone as the hearse was nowhere in sight.

There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late.

I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around.

I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played "Amazing Grace", the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.

When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Apparently I am still lost......it's a man thing.              anonymous          

                                                        

Short Pieces of String

Want to be happy and at peace?  Just remember that you are doing quite well.

Life is lived by putting short pieces of string together.....and that seems to work well enough.

As Woody Allen said, , “80% of life is just showing up.” 

As my friend says, "Get up, dress up, show up."

There are rewards for living.

Thanks for your visit,

Riverwatch

A Piece of Work. A Real Piece of Work.

A Piece of Work, a Real Piece of Work!

Her reputation preceded her before she came to work with us. She was young and beautiful and ready to take on any man, and ready to trample any woman.

“She is a real piece of work”, I was told. “A real piece of work.”

We hired her anyway.   (Acute care hospitals are often desparate to get staff.)

My life has thrown us into each other's paths multiple times, so I have had time to observe Crayolla up close and also from the sidelines.

And here is what I have seen, looking of course with my jaded eyes and preconceived notions.

Crayolla is a consummate liar. Polished beyond anything you can imagine. Believable beyond belief.

How does she do it, I wondered? 

 Lies that are so powerful. Lies that are so hard to dispute. 

 How does she do it?

Watching has given me a few insights. Perhaps you will find these insights interesting.

One of Crayolla's methods of spreading lies is visual.

Her visual descriptions that carry the lie are not filled with details, but she uses something very familiar that the person listening LOVES.

The deception comes out as a warm fuzzy.

Example: About a fat nurse who has raised a question about Crayolla's honesty, Crayolla says kindly, “She should not be a nurse. She should be an ice cream truck girl.”

Example:  About her own child, “When you were up in heaven before you were born, you looked down and

saw me and you were so excited and jumped and and down and said “That is the girl

I want for my mom. She is the BEST!!”

Example: “This is a wonderful girl who wrote EVERY day in her journal that she wanted to work

for me!”

Naturally she said this, not to "the girl", but to another person.

Crayolla uses cross-over emotions to tell lies about how someone feels and the resulting confusion allows other lies to slip through unchecked.

Example: “You love the cooker so you never mind waiting on the cooker to prepare

your food.”

Crayolla weaves mixtures of truths and lies irrationally to tell a big lie.

Example: “My parents are so straight-laced they could not tolerate it when I left the

church. That's why we don't have a close relationship. It is all about the church.  That's why I don't go to church anymore.  Because of them.”

Example: “I left the church because I wanted to go on a mission like my brothers, but

Dad said I couldn't go because I am a girl and girls need to get married.”

Her abortion as a teenager  is never mentioned.

 Example:   explaining one of her brief other employments where she was hired for one position, demoted to another and then told to “get your crap and get out because we have no place for you here”, in a gentle caring voice she explained her new circumstance to the crowd,

“Well it was a laid-off kind of thing. I got hired for one position and then that position went away and I was put in another position but that position went away and finally the manager Greg said, 'Well, I don't know what to do with you' and I said well it looks bad on the record to get laid off so I will just quit.”

If you try to surface the truth, her favorite response is "If you can't prove it, it didn't happen."

Crayolla uses a generic truth to cover her as she diminishes truth and good.

Example: “The team leader is the most important employee and so people are

jealous of me and that's why that employee survey was skewed against me.

I get compliments all the time because I am a great boss.

Crayolla uses bold lies when someone has no access to other information.

Example: “You can't pay any attention to what she said before she died.
 She is somebody who never even married because she never wanted to get married”.

Crayolla uses  bold lies, but in a soft voice, when she perceives she has power over someone.

Example: to a patient....  "that candy was meant for me and you will give me that or you are history.”

to a person she has damaging information on …... “you wouldn't dare not do what  I  ask you to do.”

to a person who is trying to have a relationship with her, “you will do as I say or I will make you life a living hell”.

Always always always in a soft silken voice.

Crayolla uses the credibility of others to float her lies.

Example: “Don't waste your time. The administrator has said we need to solve things as a team and when I have talked with him he always agrees with me.”

Example: Dr. Yeager always agrees with me.

Example: The whole committee endorsed my idea. It was unamimous. They love all my ideas.”

 Crayolla uses modifications to maime what she cannot erase.

Example: “That might or might not be true. 

 It might be true what you are saying about that or it might not be exactly true. 

 Maybe it's true sometimes, but often we change our minds about what is and what isn't.

Probably it is a mixture and you are so smart, I bet you can get that figured out.”

Crayolla uses isolation and "protect, don't tell"  to cover her lies.

While some people use darkness and aloneness as isolating methods, 

Crayolla uses hyperactivity, 

frequent changes of subjects, 

exibitionism,

and drama

as amazing methods to isolate.

That flurry of "snowflakes" hides the details.

Crayolla uses humor to cast a spell .

Example:   "Brad, sad, bad.   hahaha.  That all rhymes."

"Pat, sat, rat.  hahaha.  That all rhymes."

The magical spell floats down around you.

You feel sticky, and you have no idea where the web came from.
Nor do you know how to extricate yourself. 

Possible methods to deal with a consummate liar:

Don't hire them!!  But if you do, be prepared to be bested.

However you might use the following:
“Why don't I have a memory of that? Are you trying to create a memory for me out of your imagination?”

“Those two things don't even go together. I guess I am confused about what you are trying to say.”

“Why don't we get several people to weigh in on this assessment and see if all agree with that.”

"Why don't we go to several sources for information so we can get the most info possible about that.”  

Spells woven by anyone can be broken by distance and time.  Break the woven spell by stepping away, leaving, and allowing time to diffuse the effect.  

Firing the person works if you don't mind being sued.

According to psychologists, we all are dishonest at times.
But most of us are unskilled liars and we usually get busted and our lies topple.

Not very many of us are consummate liars.

There is a purpose to this post because it will be followed soon by a more important post on magic and deceptions.

Thanks for hanging in with me,

Riverwatch

Quicksilver

Quicksilver and the Tower



Ahh, we vain writers.
We long for permanence in the written word.
We assume permanence in the written word.
Our message will last forever and be well understood!

What a joke.

Language is as fluid as the nearest river!
Word meanings are always changing.  Languages are always intermingling.

Quicksilver.

Now add the aging brain of me to the quicksilver of language and you know I'm on a slippery slope!

And that is not the half of it.

We live in a day and age that is tongue-tying and mind-boggling!  You know.

We are building the tower to heaven again that got those ancient ones so tripped up in language that they babbled!'

I was fascinated with the Tower of Babel story as a child.
It didn't make sense to me even as a child that God would abolish a skyscraper  tower because it might actually pierce heaven !

Pictures of "the tower" show our version of their  tower.

The ancient story is that "the tower" was being constructed to reach heaven!
And before they reached their goal, the language of all people was confounded.


To truly understand the scriptures we must think the unthinkable.

Yes.  Like God is going to tremble at any manmade   skyscraper  because it might ascend the stratosphere and ....what?  Bump into some hidden dimension?  Are you serious?

Think the unthinkable starts with un-think the thinkable.

Why do we think antiquity had no nuclears, no world class CDC, no globalists running around  trying to grap all power?

Why do we think if there is  no record, it "didn't happen"?

Why do we think we are the modern advanced age, building upon the shoulders of others who came before us, those poor unfortunate darlings?

Why does it not occur to us we are merely repeating something that was even more advanced than our scene before it was wiped to the ground?

We aren't arrogant are we?  Nah.  Not us.


Piercing the heavens.  That's what those ancient arrogant brilliant rebel people were up to!

Piercing the heavens.  That's what we are up to!
The secrets of the universe.....the "god particle".....creation of life.....eternal life......power unlimited...that is the tower the ancient arrogant brilliant rebel people were constructing.

I think we have a lot in common with them.

Historians of the ancient world have tried to come up with a picture of the "tower of Babel" and they have such a low opinion of our ancestors, they think those ancients were building a skyscraper!!!


 Look how our ancient ancestors are depicted.  Lowly workers with few machines.

biblestudytools.com


Bricks.  They did use bricks.


We used bricks.  Lots of bricks.

Check out CERN's Hadron Collider where they search for the secrets to being all powerful.





A sideways tower built to pierce the heavens.

I cannot help but wonder if this looks anything like the ancient Tower of Babel?

I don't know how many bricks the ancients used, but some of the ancients got tired of carrying bricks!
Refused to work on the project.

Yeh.  We moderns have also experienced social opposition to the building of this brick edifice that is meant to pierce the heavens.

We moderns have already run into a few strange problems  with our collider  (sideways tower).
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2014/06/cern-announces-lhc-restart-schedule

We explain away the unexplainable and we forge on, undaunted.

This tower is where the World Wide Web was born,


The World Wide Web which has become so important to me I think I might go insane from withdrawal should it ever be taken away!

Maybe even die from eating too many M&M's as I try to cope!






But, seriously, let's think about how that World Wide Web is affecting us.
Is it possible the natural consequence of our tower is to affect our ability to speak coherently?

Think the unthinkable.

Listen to the newscasters.  Listen to the teachers.  Listen to yourself!

Are we beginning to babble?

Just yesterday during a conversation a woman said,"What bothers me is the conscientousality of it."
We all paused and looked at her.  Finally somebody said, "You mean constitutionality?"
"Yes", she said. "What did I say?"

Just recently I heard an elementary school teacher say, "Please!  Tone it down!  You are being too quiet and I won't tolerate this!"  (She was angry.)

A newscaster said the other day, "Well, that created a tempest in a tea cup!"  (errr isn't that tempest in a teapot?)

"Karen, you're on!  I mean Sharon.  Did I just call you Karen?"

We expect this from the oldies.  But from people in their prime?   I don't think this is normal.

Listen to the babble around you.  Hear the struggle to express oneself verbally.
You will hear  things like the following examples of what I have recently heard from people in their prime:

long picture ….........instead of big picture

up stairs....................instead of up front

"Thanks for your contributes...ahh, ahh, your contributings......ahh, your CONTRIBUTION!"

It's becoming a struggle folks!  This struggle is new.   It is worsening.

Have fun listening.
Or be alarmed.

Quicksilver.

Language is quicksilver and fragile.


Your visits mean a lot.  Thanks.
Grateful for language,
Riverwatch

Earth Angel Day

Earth Angel Day

Yesterday was sort of a hellish day. 

 If you live in the Middle East, you will be appalled hearing me whine about hellish days in America!

Hey, cut me some slack!

Earth has more than one hot spot! And when your car breaks down, nay, when the engine burns up, you are possibly on a hot spot.

It was such a bad day it threw me right into the present. Completely.

No past. No future worth thinking about.

Completely in the present I was........and that is exactly where earth angels pop up.

Being stuck in the present, I became inadvertently somebody's earth angel.

I almost didn't talk to her. 

I thought about walking over to another area to sit alone, unbothered, and brood and wait.

But some power greater than I took over and I stayed and was nice.

"Helwo", she had said.

"Hi", I had responded flatly as I contemplated how to ignore her.

I notice right off something is not normal about her. Obviously she could drive, or she wouldn't be sitting in a car repair shop. But ….she seemed.............
ok, I will say it: “over-friendly”. A touch of desperation.
Being a nurse, I am not unaware of what social desperation means. People who others reject as someone to socialize with for whatever reason become desperately needy. Often that desperation means something is not-quite-normal.

Sharon is such a person.

She is alone. Well, heck, I am alone also. That doesn't mean anything.  Does it?

Like I said, a power geater than I took over and I became nice.

She gazes at me, sitting there looking well and healthy (I am a good actress) and she says, “I wused to have a wot of money. Mmmmusch wot of money! Can wu beweive I wused to own....buswess...my own bus .. bus..buswess?”

And so I begin to listen to and decipher a tale of woe that rivals the Middle East.

That is what brain aneurysms can do for you. When one ruptures. She was 42 and at a peak of success with a business she loved and a husband she adored when tragedy suddenly struck her.

Eight years. It took her eight years to get back to where she could talk well enough to converse and “be me again”.

Eight years during which she lost her business .

Eight years during which she lost her husband to another woman.

She is no longer a woman with money.

She now hates the man she once adored.

As we talk about that she comes to see that yes, she has changed, but in some good ways.

“You could not have survived all that illness, Sharon, without becoming stronger . Your husband found he was married to a stronger and different woman! That is hard on a marriage.”

She fingers the cross on a necklace and smiles.

“Yes”, she says. “I became rewigious.”

“He loved you, Sharon. But your life took a different path and now you are stronger.”

When I had to leave, Sharon tried to follow me.

That's how I know I was an angel for somebody who needed and deserved one.

Living in the present is the best way to live. 

 I should try it more often.

Thanks for your visit,

Riverwatch

Trending on Equality for Women

I love turning to the younger generation to see what their perspective is.


Young Person:    Polygamy now legal?   So what?  The Mormon Church won't even speak to that.  Remember, it was done to "raise up a royal people"......it served its purpose.  End of story.

Me:       But the theology says you MUST have celestial marriage to reach exaltation, and that is to include multiple wives.  Like they do out in Colorado City.

Young Person:      Well, this is not a trending issue and won't become one.  Who cares?  No man wants more that one wife, not even Mormon men.  One is more than enough.
The big issue on social media trending now is Ordain Women....actually Ordain Women is bogged down into how women are treated in the Mormon Church.  Period.  "Ordain" is the lynchpin for huge conversations but the real trending issue is the lower status of females in the Mormon Church.  Not allowing equality in multiple ways. Real issues on old men criticizing young women and telling women how to behave and still trying to make women responsible for the sexual behavior of men.
These are trending issues for women and their daughters.




Me:   In other words, Ordain is light years further up the ladder from the rung of women's place being set forth and maintained by men?

Young Person:       Well, I can just tell you what Mormon women are posting about on social media.  Most are quite unhappy and they are also unhappy with the Mormon women who support the church position like female robots.   Here, read these comments.



These are progressive issues that are not going to go away.


Me:  Well, sounds like the women don't want to be ordained to a priesthood that puts them down.


Young Person:  Women expect to be invited to the table, every table.



 










Loving you for dropping by,
Riverwatch

Unfettered Faith & the Reformation

Well, I am old and still trying to figure life out.

I love what my daughter once told me when she was a teenager.  "Mom, it scares me to think about life."
"Really?  Why?"
"Because life is so strange it blows my mind away and the only thing stranger than life is no life.  I don't like to think about these things!"

Well, that's one reason we all keep busy.

I have lately busied myself reading on-line from a couple of volumes  of "History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century"
by d Aubigne'.

                                    commons.wikimedia.org

It was published in 1845 and that was the main reason I wanted to read it.....or should I say read at it.
Old books fascinate me as I think of the long-departed author and the world of yesteryear.

I did find some interesting thoughts embedded in the work and so I share the following about full liberty of faith, but paraphrased:

Unity in diversity and diversity in unity, is a law of nature as well as of the Church.

*

We are about to contemplate the diversities, or, as they have been called, the variations of the Reformation. 
These diversities are one of its most essential characteristics.

*

Truth is like the light of the sun: it descends from heaven one and ever the same; and yet it assumes different colours upon earth, according to the objects on which it falls.

How dull would creation be if this boundless variety of forms and colours, which gives it beauty, were replaced by an absolute uniformity!
imagico.com




But how melancholy also would be its appearance, if all created beings did not form a magnificent unity!

Divine unity has its rights, so also has human diversity.

In religion we must suppress neither God nor man.

If you have not unity, your religion is not of God; if you have not diversity, the religion is not of man; but it ought to be of both.



Would you erase from creation one of the laws that God himself has imposed on it,—that of infinite diversity?[221] 

Well, that is what this history said.




Thanks for sharing this moment with me, 
Riverwatch

Alive

"Alive Inside"   is an award winning documentary on the power of music to reach inside to reach the person struggling with dementia.

Here is the trailer.

http://www.aliveinside.us/?utm_source=Council+on+Aging+August+2014+Updates&utm_campaign=August+2014+Update&utm_medium=email#trailer


I plan to see the entire documentary.  I guess I need a good cry.





Thanks for your visit,
Riverwatch

Needle in a Haystack

As a senior,
as a "girl" who is bored with electronics,
and as a motherly figure dismayed with  the foracious appetite for more electronics by the rising generations, it is easy for me to drift left or right of center and say,
 "This world is going to hell in a technological handbasket!"

What makes me think it is hell?

It might be heaven.


This little 3 minute video has pulled me back towards center.  I hope you enjoy it.    

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXEvZ8B04bE


Thanks for taking time with me,
Riverwatch

A Lot of Faith

Anne Lamott speaks:

“I have a lot of faith.

But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything.

I remembered something Father Tom had told me--that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.

Certainty is missing the point entirely.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.” 

Anne Lamott from Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

   Of course my favorite book by Anne is "Bird by Bird" , a must read for every unhappy writer.

I appreciate that you stopped by,

Riverwatch