The Phantom Mustache

Something weird happened at work today...

Quietly, mysteriously, eerily...

Almost like...not almost like...it WAS...

THE PHANTOM MUSTACHE

These little mustaches started showing up on all the computer monitors...

One...
          by....
                   One...

At first, I thought this could only be the work of one person...

Yes...that Kristina Rust...

She has this odd obsession with mustaches...including on her coffee mug so it looks like she even HAS one.

But she's on the West Coast...

Who else could it have been?

Oh yeah...it was ME!

Thankful for a little levity today!

Finding God...Finding a Miracle

My work week was short due to the New Year's holiday...

But it required the energy of six weeks packed into three days...

But I was witness to the hand of God in the midst of loss...a miracle.

Working with a family whose little one is dependent on technology for sustaining life, some very chaotic circumstances brought him into a hospital stay before Christmas.  The circumstances catapulting the admission were confusing and hard to understand.  Why?  Why now?

Returning to work this past Wednesday, I learned that the apartment directly above the family's apartment caught on fire in the early morning hours.  All the units are uninhabitable.  On top of everything else, now this?

And yet, somehow, God knew...and this child was in the hospital...at the right place...at the right time.  And God used the chaos...something God knew all about...and used it in a very redeeming way.

So what may appear as a dark, stormy time in our lives that makes no sense, if we will ask God and take the time to seek, we will see that He is in the middle of it all...holding us close to His heart.

Out Early...Out Clickin'

Okay, I'll admit it...while I have this really great job and enjoy the work I do...

I do have certain days...where my gratitude level slips a little...

Like yesterday...oh maaaaaaaaan...a fresh, new snowstorm...on a workday, no less...

My hands were shaking...quivering...where's my camera?  I need a fix!  But I'm at work...

But then there was a gift...

We were let go early to get home safely...which I did...then Edster and I, with camera in hand...went cruisin...

I thought I'd show you some snippets from my fix!

A delightful yellow home nestled on a farm...still decorated for Christmas...

Snowing at the reservoir...

An old vintage barn in Randolph Township...

A snow covered country road next to a brilliant red barn...

A seasonal, snowy Christmas wreath with red ribbons blowing with the snow...

A small, remote creek beginning to freeze...

And a long, elegant arm of a "woman" in her long white evening gloves.

So...it was a surprise.  And though I would have been fine to have stuck it out all day, it was incredible to photograph the first significant snowfall of the season.

And I am grateful!

Gifts Given ~ Receiving One Unexpected

December is the busiest month in my work at a children's hospital.  Christmas, children, hospital...what a combination...and we go all out to ensure our patients/families (admitted or at home) have a Merry Christmas...in addition to our day-in/day-out routine (although this job has no routine!).

As it has been so busy and hectic, my writing consistency has limped a little...and I appreciate the patience of my readers. (Mea culpa!)

I used my photography as Christmas gifts to my colleagues in pediatric palliative care who labor and sacrifice to make life better for those with chronic/complex medical conditions.

I made two sets of notecards...using 4x6 photos developed by Mpix, photomount cards and envelopes from Cheap Joes, and stationery boxes from U-Line...all internet ordered...easy peasy deluxe!!!!!  (Right up my alley!)

Set One:  Sunflowers - These were from the 100-plus volunteers from stray sunflower seeds from the bird feeders this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set Two:  Cuppas (Inspired from Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class Day 46.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the gift I received...unexpected????  I'll share in my next post...(teaser)!

Merry Christmas to all of you...and wishing you a year full of gratitude in 2013!

Five on Friday - Five Families ... (Okay, there's really seven!)

Monday I was privileged to be part of a "red carpet" premiere of a documentary featuring seven families that have been involved in our pediatric palliative care center.  All of us who work in the center were in the documentary...but it was the families that really made this 60-minute film to educate medical students on pediatric palliative care.

Yes...we really did have a red carpet ceremony.

I can't think of anything I'd rather share or be a part of today...here's the trailer of Portraits of Life, Love, and Legacy through Pediatric Palliative Care:




Leaves you speechless...

Day 27 ~ Gifts Humbling, Honoring, Happy

Down to the last days of my October Joy Dare...

Has anyone else besides me having avalanches daily out of their mailboxes from catalogs?  Honestly...

I came out from the bedroom this morning...leafed through one from Pottery Barn...and then Dell...then one from Ballard Designs...

And I felt sick...

A gift has appeared of late that is extremely humbling.  We are such an excessive society...these catalogs were dripping with it. And our craving for more creates a pace and stress that is barely survivable.

As part of the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA), our pediatric palliative care center has become a sponsor to the first pediatric palliative care unit in Kenya. Only 4.6 percent of the world's population lives in the United States, yet consumes 80 percent of the world's pain medication. 

I met Dr. Mburugu and his team via streaming video over a laptop in our conference room a couple of weeks ago.  I am humbled at how I see how this group is taking this huge venture, to make a difference for the children of Kenya, with so little...compared to all the options we have in our pediatric palliative care center at the hospital.  I'm sure as we grow our relationship, God will continue to humble me with this gift.

Continuing to talk about my work, I received recognition from supervisors for "going the extra mile" working with an amazing single mother whose young child had sustained a traumatic brain injury.  His survival was indeed tenuous...possible brain death.  During this time, I tried to take as much "paperwork" and "financial" burden off of her within my professional boundaries so she could focus on her child.  Six months later, she had him in the office...laughing, saying a few words, interacting in his 2-year-old way.  This gits was honoring...and also extremely humbling.  I was honored to walk with her through this miraculous journey.

My co-worker, Joanne (above, center), has been with us a year.  Just out of graduate school she came with her young self...uprooting from all her family and friends to work with us here in Ohio, as her first "big girl" job.  This is quite an undertaking...being apart from most you've known and go to a place where you know no one.  It was a happy gift to know that her parents were coming this weekend...she had not seen her father since May...it makes me smile.  It is also a happy gift to work with her.

Oh, may we learn to live grateful lives...to live simply...to do as God requires:

...to do justice and love kindness, and walk humbly with your God... (Micah 6:8)

 

I know I often fall short...



Day 26 ~ Three Gifts Extravagant

When I pondered this category...I looked up the word extravagant and came up with quite a few synonyms from the Thesarus:  crazy, flamboyant, exaggerated, expensive, unreasonable, unrestrained, over-the-top, extreme, fantastic, fancy, excessive, outrageous.

But I would like to approach this word from the perspective of one of my favorite verses:

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think...

Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)

 

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or

request in your wildest dreams!

Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

 

Doesn't that sound extravagant?

 

 

Day 26 ~ Three Gifts Extravagant

 

 

 

I did not dare dream, hope for, imagine that I would ever marry after a decade of singleness.  And I was okay with that ~~ content.  But extravagantly, over-the-top, the Lord brought Edster into my life, at just the right time.  I had no idea...no idea that when our paths providentially crossed on that Friday, June 6, 2008, that it would result into the love of a lifetime, allowing Edster and my dad to form a good relationship, giving my dad peace knowing God had bestowed a wonderful Christian man to his daughter for life.  Just over a year later from our meeting each other ~~ my father would be in heaven, entering the day before we married.

 

 

 

I know that same feeling my father must have felt.  Last December, my Lydia ~~ a single mother of two boys who are the heart of my heart ~~ she married a wonderful Christian man who adores her and the boys.  He could have only come along as an extravagant gift from her Savior.  And what a gift to me...peace knowing my daughter had a helpmate, a partner, a role model for those boys, and a godly man to lead their family.

 

 

Oh...before I go on to my third gift extravagant...with the gift of Edster came a bonus!  My stepdog Bruno!

 

 

 

I never dreamed that I would ever obtain a college degree and work in the field I so desired.  Caleb had taught me so much, and I was able to help other families facing some comparable challenges.  But I was an executive assistant full-time, doing good advocacy for others in addition to my job, wanting to make a difference...but I needed the credentials.  I had two years' college completed from thirty years' prior.  Single, sole-supporting...how could I, at age 46, work full-time, go to school full-time, and not only need to get my BSW, but I would also need to get my Master's degree? 

 

How do I explain that by age 49, I had graduated from Case Western Reserve University with distinction and am now in a position that is a dream come true?  A privilege?  A ministry? Making a difference...?  I cannot answer any other way except that God did it...an extravagant gift of love...He who makes the impossible, possible.

 

Yes, God's love, God's grace, God's goodness is extravagant...i.e., crazy, flamboyant, exaggerated, expensive, unreasonable, unrestrained, over-the-top, extreme, fantastic, fancy, excessive, outrageous...actually...

 

it defies words...

 

Watch for His extravagance this weekend!

 

 

 





Day 15 and 16 ~ Re-Read and Burning

Yeow...first day back to work yesterday...big time busy!!!  I'm still trying to get caught up after two weeks off...but all is well.

So, I had to combine days...again...

Day 15 ~ Three gifts re-read...

I make "cookie jars."  But they don't contain cookies...  They are glass jars with little pieces of paper inside.  On the pieces of the decorated paper are quotes I've collected...some funny, some encouraging, some profound, some silly, some take your breath away.  And I always put a decorative ribbon around it.

This photo is one that I made for a friend who was dealing with a profoundly difficult time.

Why do I call them "cookies?"  Because after you read one...you want to read another...and another...and another.

So I re-read some of the ones I have in my inventory...and these were the gifts re-read (please read all three):

God is not an Employer looking for employees.  He is an Eagle looking for people who will take refuge under His wings.    - John Piper

In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others. - Henri Nouwen

I like to call in sick to work at places where I've never held a job.  Then when the manager tells me I don't work there, I tell him, "I'd like to, but not today...as I am sick.    - Jarod Kintz.
 

And that's how the "cookies" are...random...you never know what you're going to pull out!

Day 16 ~ Three gifts burning

The Edster knew I had some struggles today...once I got home from work and changed into my "comfy clothes"...he stood in the hallway with this singing me a silly song...

What a gift of thoughtfulness and laughter after a day that tried to get the best of me...

And so we never know where the gift will come from...

But they come...they always come.

Caught...Let Go...Mid-Way

Another day trip with Edster, me, and Bruno in wild, wonderful West Virginia...

 

 

Ed was behind the wheel and we had our iced teas...and off we went to the high country of Pocahontas County.

And faithfully, God showed me abundant gifts, including 3 - 1 caught, 1 let go, 1 mid-way.

 

• I read out loud to Edster as he drove...returning back to Ann Voskamp's book we read last year, One Thousand Gifts.  As I opened the book, I was caught by surprise by a memorial leaflet from the calling hours I had attended for a 2-year-old that had been accidentally hit by a vehicle backing out of her driveway.  Ann's story begins the same way about her 2-year-old sister.  I remembered the gift I caught one night while on call to be a healing presence to this family and gift to know this loving family.  It was not a gift I expected to think about today...and therefore, it was also a gift that caught me by surprise!

• Throughout the day, I was lavishly surrounded by all of this incredible beauty of God's creative artistry making the mountains appear blanketed with patchwork quilts of red, gold, orange, yellow, and green.  The trees were on fire!  And while I embraced every moment indulging in God's gift of autumn glory, I also knew I would have to let go.  There was no way I could take it home.  Photograph it, as I may, I could not clone what my eyes were seeing...the brilliance, the dimensions, the richness.

• Though many gifts I opened today will have to remain behind, what a gift it is to realize that it is only Wednesday...not even mid-way through my vacation.  And what a time of renewal and wonder it has been, thus far.

What were yours today?  Tomorrow...3 Gifts Reaped!  Keep your eyes open...God's gifts are waiting!

 

Compassion for the Compassionate

I took this still photo last year on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001.  The plaid under the book is the skirt I wore on that day, as mentioned in an earlier post.  No matter how many times I revisit this day, it continues to bring immense hurt and sorrow that I cannot put into words.  It's as if no time has even passed.

 

Last week I attended a conference in town...Compassion for the Compassionate:  Supporting Those Serving Others.   It addressed the long-term emotional cost of being able to perform in high-demand, caregiving situations.  There were 550 of us there...those of us who daily go places in our work that most of the world will never see.

The keynote speaker was Father Lyndon Harris, who was the Episcopal priest at St. Paul's Chapel, opposite of the East side of the World Trade Center, which became a hub of compassion for nearly 9 months to those who were in crisis in the aftermath of the terrorists attacks.  Many of those served were the first responders who remained at Ground Zero for months as part of the recovery.  No words can say it better than Lyndon in this 12-minute video I strongly urge you to take the time to view.

 

And as I reflected today about all of those directly impacted...I reached out to a firefighter who was in Tower One whom I am honored to know.  I offered words of healing for which he was grateful.  But those of us who give compassion in crisis, he, like many of us, carry a heavy burden.  Though it does not seem rational, there is a haunting, excruciating pain of self-criticism that we could have done more.  He told me, "the pain never goes away."

Life is a gift with multiple blessings...but today I honor those who go in the thick of the fight, lay their emotions elsewhere, to provide compassion to others, despite the high emotional cost to the deepest part of oneself.