Category: sorrow

To be vaccinated or to not be vaccinated

by worrylessjourney, posted in belief, faith, sorrow

Some may find this post against their beliefs and I beg forgiveness if my thoughts are offensive to anyone. This is the post of an 81 year old nurse whose grandmother was blind due to measles. As a young girl her life was changed forever. It is evident to me that we have lost many wonderful people in the last few years due to their fear and reluctance to be vaccinated. It hurts to see their lives cut short. Know that I respect that others have a right to their own beliefs.

Today I read the most incredible article in the New York Times. It is about the growth of the anti-vaccination trend. It is titled “The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s New Frontier.” The article shows that those who previously were concerned about vaccines causing autism were started by a English doctor whose study was not scientifically done and studied only 12 children. This number is not a base for conclusions.

Obviously data from this study was disseminated without any scrutiny and was actually funded by a lawyer wanting data for a lawsuit against the vaccine company. Beginning with this misinformation many parents were afraid for their children. The fear of this continues.

There was already a background for fear of vaccines when covid appeared on the horizon and questions about mandates for vaccines brought the whole issue into the political arena. With other issues under debate including gun laws it was easy to link into this and let it be part of human rights.

The problem now is that with many choosing to not be vaccinated or vaccinate their children and politics finding ways to enlarge it all we may be looking at epidemics of diseases we considered controlled by vaccinations. Outbreaks have been reported in recent years with children…some dying. This is a frightening thought. Propaganda is a viable weapon.

Our nation is so divided over many, many issues and we are ripe for believing disinformation of any kind. God help us.

Oh when will we ever learn?

by worrylessjourney, posted in anger, hopelessness, sorrow

With so many crisis to think about it is hard to put together cohesive thoughts. Between the various shootings and the war in the Ukraine the world seems so chaotic. Sometimes it is so hard to not be angry at those who want more and more power….that includes Putin and also those in power in this country who are so blinded by ambition that they can’t see the state we are in. We are the only country with so many massacres. Yes, let’s stop calling them shootings and call them what they are …massacres.

On this day when we choose to honor those who gave their lives for this country can’t we show respect to them by tightening gun laws and stop at least some of the violence. My husband loved this country. He would have given his life for it and almost did in Viet Nam. Yet then and now we send soldiers to fight wars that can’t be won because politics make that impossible. We arm youngsters and fanatics easily with weapons and even body armor so they can kill more people. Logic has been totally lost in both situations.

For some reason I was reminded of this song. “Oh when will they (we) ever learn.” This version by Peter, Paul and Mary brings the full sorrow. Even the audience feels it.

Perspective

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, blessings, compassion, connections, emotions, empathy, friends, life changes, perspective, sadness, sorrow

sadness-depression

It seems that sad things come in groups. As I said in my last post a young man has gone into Hospice leaving a wife and two children. Today we got the news that one of our friends has had a reurrence of a brain tumor that has remained small and idle. It is now growing rapidly and although not malignant will still be a serious problem. We don’t know yet how it will be handled and what the prognosis will be. The last surgery for it left considerable physical deficits.

Another friend’s daughter was in a serious auto accident. Someone crossed the middle line and hit her head on. The good news it that her injuries can heal in time. Her son, who was also in the car is fine. So in the bad there is good.

It is time for some good news and happy outcomes. Hearing these sort of stories certainly brings our own problems down to size. The frustration about the mess in my home is minor by comparison.

blessings

 

Hearing the tragedies around us can adjust out perspective in an instant. Tragedies around the world matter but they seem worse when close to home happening to those we know.

It is time to stop and count my blessings.

Accepted but not fixed

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, comfort, compassion, death, life changes, sadness, sorrow

Last evening I had some sad news. A friend’s son-in-law is dying from cancer leaving a wife and two preteen children. I am so sorry about this. I watched my friend’s daughter grow up, get married, and have children. Now they have been fighting this disease for several years and he is on Hospice.

broken

I hate so much for that family to lose a father and husband. Life will never be the same. There are some things that change us utterly and immediately. Some things are slow in coming and give us time to grasp them. Death, no matter how we see it coming, is still not prepared for. Life moves into a totally different reality.

I pray for that family and will offer any help. Nothing, however, can fix it. There are things that can be accepted but not fixed

Sacrifice

by worrylessjourney, posted in appreciate, consequences, contemplation, giving, responsible, sorrow

Today is Good Friday. A day to ponder about what it means to sacrifice.

sacrifice

Today, for some reason, my eyes hurt. I don’t know if it because of too much straining to read things but I’m not going to write much. I am putting drops in my eyes and resting them for the night. I’m a human with sore eyes but I did see this quote and it cheered giraffeme. 

Unkindness

by worrylessjourney, posted in aggravations, consequences, control, coping, emotions, sorrow, unkindness, you matter

This week I have heard two stories of people being deliberately unkind. In both instances it was totally uncalled for. It is amazing to me how mean ad hurtful some people can be. In one case the person hurt made no response. In the other the hurt was brought to the attention of the person with not a smidgen of remorse or acknowledgement that anything was said that hurt.

unkindness

How do we handle this kind of person? It totally depends on the situation. Unfortunately, in both of these cases there was no ability to dismiss the person and just stay away from them. The one person tried to deal with it and since it is a work situation will not be able to do anything until later.

The second one is dealing with family. Both of these people do not have the option to just walk away. That would certainly be the best choice.

Being unkind in return just exacerbates the situation. It is better to state your feelings in a calm and simple way and move on

kindness-in-ourselves-is-the-honey-that-blunts-the-sting-of-unkindness-in-another-3

At my age I seldom tolerate those who behave in this way. I will either stay away from them after voicing my thoughts….quietly but with conviction….or if family point out the hurt and hope that they see. Sometimes I choose to speak to spare a family member from being the one in the cross fire. As we get older it is easier to absorb the fall out.

We do not have to continue to be hurt over and over. People who are this unkind are usually unhappy themselves. Their behavior is often the result of being hurt in the past. However, we don’t have to put up with it. Sparing ourselves is important to our health and well-being.

From the neonatal nurse…sadness

by worrylessjourney, posted in aggravations, compassion, emotions, sadness, sorrow, tears

This is my rant and objections about the Vermont State law in process. You are free not to read. It frightens me that this may be politics at its worst.

crying-eyes

I worry so much about our country. What I see happening is the decline of our ethical standards. Another state, Vermont, has changed their abortion law. So there is no misunderstanding of what it says here is the link to the bill itself.

Click to access H-0057%20As%20Introduced.pdf

The applicable part is below.

2 § 9493. INDIVIDUAL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
13 (a) Every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse
14 contraception or sterilization.
15 (b) Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to
16 choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an
17 abortion.

The bill sounds pretty comparable to the laws of some other states until you get to part (C)

(c) A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus shall not have independent rights
under Vermont law

Even though I am a nurse and understand what the word fetus means I looked for a definition.

fe·tus

Dictionary result for fetus

/ˈfēdəs/
noun
  1. an unborn offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception.
    synonyms: embryo, fertilized egg, unborn baby, unborn child

    “antibodies are passed via the placenta to the fetus”

Notice that no definition of that word is present in the bill. It is deliberately ambiguous for most people. We don’t usually hear it applied to full term, viable, infants. However, it does apply to them. I find this reprehensible. Naturally they did not use the word “baby” as that would have been a trigger.

sadness2

I have talked about how we can’t spend our life in “what if’s” but it is time where we must look ahead. Is aborting a full term baby  murder? If it isn’t we have just allowed murder. Now the “fetus” has no rights at all. I guess I have seen so many babies born and fight to live and I have loved and cared for them I am in tears at the thought of this.

“What if” a teen gets pregnant and is able to hide it to full term and disposes of the baby in a trash can. Is this murder? Maybe not under that law. She can claim that she was aborting it. This is not pie in the sky. I have cared for infants found this way and still alive.

My hope is that most women would not carry to full term and then choose to “abort.”I hope that most women will make a decision about this early on and that only exigent circumstance will cause this to be an issue. I hope no one is willing to do it to test the law but I can’t be sure of that.

I have seen babies die and have always felt the sorrow of that loss of life. Life is precious. I would like for the people who have drafted and passed this bill and those who will do so in the next house be present when such a late term abortion of a perfectly normal baby is carried out. It seems that is the least they could do. I certainly could never be present at the MURDER of a BABY.

 

Grief is a journey

by worrylessjourney, posted in answers, anxiety, connections, coping, death, emotions, grief, guilt, hope, Live!, sorrow, understanding

grief journeyWhen we experience the loss of someone or something truly significant to we can be overwhelmed. Sometimes numbness sets in and we are separate from things going on around us. When the grief begins to explode our psyche we don’t know what to do to help. There is a danger at this point. We want so badly to help the pain that we can reach out to things that can put a band aid on the hurt for awhile. Sometimes those things are knee jerk reactions and end up adding to our emotional crisis. That is why most advice says don’t do anything hasty. Usually the advice is about selling a house or moving. But there are other things that can crop up.

One thing we seek during immediate grief is connections. We need others to see our pain. Most of the time people don’t know what to say or how to help. Many say the wrong things. There will be some who understand the things that you really need. Hold them close…they are your lifeline.

If this happens to us early in life ..losing a spouse or loved one…we so want the grief to relent that it is easy to dive into another relationship thinking that is the answer. I have a friend who lost her husband early on and had two disastrous marriages before stepping back and eventually making a  loving and lasting connection. She just wanted the pain to stop.

Grief is not an easy thing and it does not follow the same pattern for everyone. Small things can cause waves of pain.. a smell, a song, an event. There are so many more.

griefpoemfinal-740x628There will be life following. It is fine to laugh, have good days and momentarily put thoughts of your love from your mind. Don’t be guilty. You are allowed to go on. You still have God given life and you can live it.

 

 

Can we survive the hatred?

by worrylessjourney, posted in anxiety, belief, consequences, danger, darkness, death, divided world, religions, sadness, sorrow, violence, worry

Nelson Mandela (1)Periodically I take time out to worry about the state of the world and especially the US. After the latest shooting I thought about how much hate is our there. How did we get to this? Like the song from South Pacific hate has to be taught. We aren’t born hating. It is learned. What went wrong in those families (or lack of) that taught so much hatred.

hatersHating people for their faith seems so unnecessary. However, it is not the only kind out there. Hatred seems to have spread so much faster than love. Are we so afraid of differences? For me, hatred is related to fear…fear that people like “us” will not come out on top. Fear that causes us to facilitate the eradication of any threat to our beliefs. Is my own belief so weak that the belief of others is a threat?  We saw this before in Nazi Germany but it was more about purity of race than faith.

god-alone-knows-how-great-it-is-all-i-hope-is-that-it-is-not-too-late-i-am-very-much-afraid-that-it-quote-1

Somehow I am not sure that humanity should expect to survive forever. We will either annihilate ourselves or the earth we have raped will do it for us. After all, maybe we are not meant to last forever. We seem to be too flawed.

I worry about my grandchildren and great grandson. What sort of world are we leaving for those to come? If only we could learn the kind of interaction that most major religious leaders have taught. I hope it is not too late.

Loss

by worrylessjourney, posted in coping, emotions, feelings, grief, memories, pain, sadness, sorrow

tearsToday I am really sad. My mother gave me a ring of hers on my 16th birthday. It is beautiful. It’s monetary value is of no consequence to me. It’s sentimental value is enormous. Today I went to get it and put it in the jeweler cleaner and it wasn’t there. I have looked everywhere although I am sure it should have been in its normal place. One of two things has happened…either it was taken by someone who was in the house and there have been some…or I have put it somewhere unknowing and now will have to find it. I am devastated. I have only lost two pieces of real jewelry in my life and both of them were connected with my mother.

After the first loss I did mandalas (drawings done to with prayer and meditation) about it for months and the thought still hurts. Now I have another to get past. I keep reminding myself that it is just things and that people are what matter but at the moment it only helps a little. I know that this too shall pass but for now it hurts.

Grief (1)I can’t seem to stop my tears from falling. This is not anxiety or depression but sorrow and grief. I pray that the ring is here and will be found but I have real doubts. Life can certainly put us to the test about what is important. I promise that my faith and the people I love will get me past this but I think it is ok for the moment to grieve.