Becoming a travel nurse has taught me a lot about myself.

Usually when I start a new job, I’m very quiet and it takes me a long time to become comfortable around new people.  Now that I’m a travel nurse, I can’t afford to be quiet.  I have to become comfortable really quickly.  Every hospital has different policies.  I have to ask questions and that gets me out of my comfort zone.

I not only have to ask questions for myself but for my patients as well.  Some hospitals allow the patient to leave the floor to get some fresh air or smoke.  Some hospitals don’t allow that.

I’ve become more outgoing now that I’m a travel nurse.

That outgoing spirit has affected my private life as well.  I just recently went horseback riding by myself.  I was nervous but I really enjoyed myself.  I’m doing things that I only dreamed of doing.

I also learned a big lesson recently about living the life of your dreams..

Working too much and not taking the time out to have fun will lead to burn out.

I was recently feeling very burned out for the past couple of weeks.  I kept telling myself that I am living the life of my dreams and I shouldn’t be felling this way.  It was getting harder and harder to get up for work.  Don’t get me wrong, I love being a nurse but some days I feel like I just can’t be a nurse today.  I’m doing so many things on my days off that it is easy for me to get burned out and feel like I haven’t had a day off.  I’m sure that people who have a lot of things to do feel the same way.  That there are just not enough hours in the day to get done what they need to get done.

Now I realize that I need to do something every day that brings me happiness or peace.

Some days I just meditate.  Some days I just sit in the park by the ocean.  Being in nature rejuvenates me.  Some days its just exercising.  Some days its just writing in my journal.  Some days its just listening to music.

Every now and then I’ll go on a big adventure like whale watching, para sailing, or horseback riding

I now love to travel to new places.  2 years ago, I was terrified of traveling to new places and not being in my comfort zone.  I was scared of meeting new people.  Some one once told me that it was time to spread my smile and my happiness around the world.  She was right.

Living the life of my dreams hopefully has inspired other people to do the same.   The travel life is the life for me!!!

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I had a great experience at church.

I had left my money at home.  I had a $20 bill in my other purse that I had left.  I didn’t realize I left it until I went in my purse to grab my money for the first offering and I didn’t have any money in my purse.

I immediately became anxious.

I wanted to be a grown up.  I didn’t want to ask my mom for any money.  If I asked my mom for money, I knew that she was only going to give me $5.  I had wanted to put the whole $20 in the offering.

I didn’t know what to do.

The moment for the offering was coming up and I didn’t have any money to put into the envelope.  I finally thought to myself that I have ask my mom for money.

Right as the ushers were getting up to pass out the envelopes, my dad turns around and passes a $20 bill to me.  He mouths that the money is from Mother Jones.  I got Mother Jones attention and mouthed thank you to her.  I put the whole $20 bill into the offering.  I felt like a little boss when I dropped the envelope into the basket.

This situation let me know that God’s timing is perfect.  I didn’t tell anyone that I had left my money at home.  There was no way that Mother Jones or my parents knew that I was anxious about not having any money.

God, the universe, or the Creator ( who ever or what ever you call it) has perfect timing.

I’ve also learned that what God wants God gets.

I never wanted to move when I was little.  Even if we were moving to a bigger house.  I didn’t like the idea of moving because I was being taken out of my comfort zone.

I would pray and pray that we wouldn’t move.

Fortunately for me, we still moved.  That taught me a valuable.

It’s God’s will and not my will.

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t struggle and my life would be easy.  If that were true, then I wouldn’t learn and grow.  I still don’t like conflict to this day but that is a part of growing up.  No one would misunderstand me.  Also if it were up to me, I wouldn’t be waiting on my future husband to come into my life.  I would have met him in high school and we would be married right now.  That was not God’s plan for my life.  I am right where God wants me to be in my life and where I want to be too

I think that if most people would look at the struggles that they have had in their life, they would realize that the struggles made you a better person.  The struggles taught you a lesson that you may not have learned if you didn’t experience the struggles.

Experience is the best teacher.

 

 

Does Race Exist?

“I Have a Dream that people are not outraged at the killing of a black child because they are black, but because they are a child.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not if favor of justice for all people.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

“You may be 38 years old as I happen to be.  And one day some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, or great cause.  And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.  You refuse to do it because you want to live longer… You’re afraid you will lose your job, or you’re afraid you’ll be criticized or that you will lose popularity, or you’re afraid somebody will stab you, or shoot at you, or bomb your house; so you refuse to take a stand.  Well, you may go on to live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90.  And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

These quotes right here, spoke volumes to my soul.

I don’t believe in race.

Race is defined in the dictionary as, “a group of persons related by common descent or hereditary.”  And that is nothing new to us.  But…

I looked at the bottom of this dictionary page and found something very interesting to me.  It quotes, “Genetic evidence has undermined the idea of racial divisions of the human species and rendered race obsolete as a biological system of classification.  Race therefore should no longer be considered as an objective category, as the term was formerly was in expressions like the Caucasian race, Asian race, the Hispanic race.”

To me that last statement is saying that most human beings are made up of genetically of a lot of DNA.  My own DNA states that I’m made up of a lot of DNA from a lot of different places in the world.  My DNA says that I’m African, European, Native American, Southeast Asian, and Polynesian.

On any given day, depending on the person who is looking at me, I can be any “race” to them.  I’ve had a 50 something year old white man call me a pretty little white girl.  I’ve had some Spanish patients start speaking Spanish to me and said that I looked Spanish.  I’ve had some patients tell me that I look like a Cherokee Indian because of my face.  I had one patient tell me that I looked Asian because of the shape of my eyes.

When I look in the mirror, I just see myself.  Sure, I see my skin tone, but that doesn’t reflect my soul.  My body is the vehicle that I chose to be in for this life. 

I recently saw a video on Facebook that talked about “race”.  The video compared “race” to the kind of car we chose to drive.  It said that if a person chose to drive a Honda, then that person wouldn’t be called a Honda.  That person would be called a person that drove a Honda but the person isn’t the Honda.

In my next life, I don’t know what “model or car” I might be.  Maybe I’ll be an Asian or a man, but really, at my core, I am not either of those external characteristics either.

I am not this body.  I am not Black, Asian, Spanish, or any other race that was invented to categorize human beings.  I am a spiritual being in human form.  I laugh, cry, get angry, sad, or happy just like other human beings.

As a nurse, I’ve come to realize that we all have so much in common.  The problems that many people go through are the same.  When I was struggling with my eating disorder, I felt alone and that no one was going through what I was going through.  When I went to the overeater’s anonymous meeting, I realized that there were more people going through what I was going through.  Sometimes when we get wrapped up in our problems, its hard to see that other people are going through the same things.

Sometimes your problems aren’t unique.

I was recently asked to support something because of the color of my skin.  I refused.  Because I believe in reincarnation, I can’t just support one group of people because the color of my skin.  I have to make the world a better place for everybody.

I have been introduced by my friends as “the whitest black person”.  This friend then went down a list that qualified me for that title.  She said that I didn’t drink, I spoke proper English, and I didn’t smoke.  I took it as a joke.  To this day I still don’t know what talking “white” means. 

That has been happening all my life.  Some people have said that because I have “good hair”, I have to be mixed.  Because of my skin tone, I have to be mixed.  Does it really matter if I am mixed?  I’m still a good person.

I’m not going to change myself to fit into a box to make other people feel comfortable.

I’m going to be myself.  No one can be a better Shavawn than I can.

I asked myself, what if everyone expected the best from other people?  How would people act if we our prejudices and gave each other the benefit of the doubt?  Would people still be expected to “act black” or “talk white”?

I don’t have all the answers yet, but asking these questions is the start of a conversation that just might lead us to a deeper understanding of ourselves and one another.  It might bring us closer together.  And so I’ll leave you with one question: what would happen if you dared to ask someone a question before you assume something about their race or actions, how might that change the way we relate to each other if we approached one another from a place of curiosity rather than judgment?

 

Ever since high school, I have wanted to fall in love.  When I was little, I would watch the Disney movies and wish that I had a knight in shining armor.  My favorite movie was The Little Mermaid.  I loved the songs.  My favorite song from the movie was Part of my World.  Ariel is still my favorite Disney princess.

I used to think that when my husband came into my life that I would automatically be happy and live happily ever after.

I’ve only had 2 boyfriends.  After the third date, I could feel it in my spirit that they were not the one that God wanted me to be with.  I guarded my heart after I got that feeling.  I still dated them hoping that God would change the plan.  I spent most of the relationships trying to prove to God that I would be good with them.  But the plan never changed.  Eventually I had to let them go because it wasn’t fair to them.  It wasn’t fair of me to be in a relationship that I knew wasn’t going to go anywhere.  My last boyfriend was talking about marriage.  As soon as he brought it up, I knew that it was time to break up.  I couldn’t marry him.  He was a good man but I couldn’t spend my life with him.  I was still waiting to be rescued from my unhappiness.

I decided I needed to be by myself and get to know myself.  At that point, I wasn’t even comfortable being by myself.  I liked being in relationships.  I equated being single with there being something wrong with myself.

I also decided that I needed to rescue myself.  I couldn’t wait for a knight in shining armor or my future husband.  I wanted to be happy now and not put it off for a future date.

Asking for help has never been my strong point.  I knew I needed something different, if I was going to rescue myself.  Asking for help doesn’t make you weak, it means that you were strong enough to recognize that you needed help.

Rescuing myself meant that I was going to have to get to know myself, good and bad.  I was going to have to face myself and change.  My dreams were showing me what I was going to be in the future.  I could see that new Shavawn and see how happy she was with herself.

The first step I took was to look for a therapist that specialized in eating disorders.  I wasn’t able to find any in my area.  I felt that if I got to the bottom of why I turned to food to soothe myself, I could then work on my other issues.  Thankfully I found a life coach.

The second step was to do the work and change.  I had to change my eating habits and get to know myself.  My life coach broke my goals down into small doable steps.  Sometimes it was easy and sometimes it was hard work.  I do like that she never told me to give up the doughnuts.  She allowed me to give them up when I was ready.  When I found out why I turned to food to soothe myself, it became easier for me to give them up.  Change isn’t easy by any means.  Change asks that you get out of your comfort zone.  That can be down right scary at times.  I was scared right before I did my first ever open mic night but I did it anyways.  As my life coach says, “showing up is the hardest part”.

Now I’m no longer waiting for the “knight in shining armor”.  I know who my future husband is.  I love him flaws and all.  When he finds me, he will find a woman who is happy and loves herself.

Now that I’ve put in the work of rescuing myself, I can live the life of my dreams.   If I could talk to the old Shavawn, I would tell her that she can do this.  I would tell her that it may be scary at times but that you can get through it.  You may lose some friends along the way but you will gain so many more people that love you.  Trust in your dreams.  The universe will take care of you.

I have finally fallen in love.  I’m in love with myself!!

 

Anger rose in my chest.  A friend had posted something on Facebook that triggered my anger, and before I could think about it, I wanted to post something in retaliation.

I wasn’t just mad at her, there were other people posting similar things.

I thought of blog posts to write and even looked up the nursing code of ethics to post.  But thankfully, I didn’t post it.

Before I reacted, I sat back and examined my feelings and made an unexpected discovery.

I wasn’t angry, I was hurt.

And since it was true for me, I wondered, how many people if they examined their feelings would realize that they aren’t angry?  They are hurt or disappointed by what someone else has done.

The other person didn’t do what they would have done or they did do something that they wanted to do.  I asked myself this question,

“Is Anger Just Hurt In Disguise?”

The reason that I was hurt was because me and this friend had really clicked, I was able to share my dreams with her that I don’t share with just anyone.  I don’t have a lot of friends or people that I connect with so easily, and had just lost my closest friend a couple of months prior over something very similar… my hurt disguised as anger.

Looking back on losing my closest friend, I realized all the mistakes that I made.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

I posted on Facebook, how she was making me feel and unfriended her.  At the time, I needed a break from her.

I know everybody has the right to post on Facebook what they want to post.  I didn’t say her name in the post but she knew it was about her.  I even made the post public so that she would still be able to see it.

I didn’t tell her directly how she was making me feel because I was scared that she wouldn’t listen to me or care.  It was hard to love someone else when I didn’t love myself.

I feared that she wouldn’t consider how her comments and actions were impacting me.  I feared that she would just say that I was being too sensitive.

But having some time to process, and look at things from her perspective, I understand what she was trying to say, that I have dreams about the future and I should trust in them.  I shouldn’t worry.

She would tell me that I had spiritual gifts and that I should be at peace.  She didn’t know that at the time, I didn’t have the tools to make those dreams become reality.  She was my best friend and she didn’t know what I was going through.  Again, I didn’t know how to love anybody when I didn’t love myself at the time.

My eating disorder was consuming my life and I didn’t know how to stop it.  I trusted in the dreams that God had given me but I also knew that they couldn’t come true unless I changed some things.

Needless to say that when she saw the Facebook post, we had a big argument.  She decided to end the friendship.

Over the past 15 years of our friendship, we never really addressed our issues.  We would just sweep them under the rug and not deal with them.  That night everything just erupted.

I should have just talked to her about how she was making me feel.  I should not have posted it on Facebook.  I was definitely hurt and I hurt her too.

Hurt people hurt people.

The night we had the argument, I couldn’t process her feelings.  I had just done my first open mic performance and I was feeling great.  I think we both were not listening to each other.

I realized from that incident, that you have the right to post what you want to Facebook, but you have to except the consequences of what you post.  The post may make one of your friends think differently about you.  It may be the straw that breaks a friendship.

I had one of my best friends tell me that I had been petty to unfriend her on Facebook.  I agree.

Looking back on the recent incident, with my new friend, I can honestly say that I’ve learned a lot.  I got some advice from my life coach and my best friends about the situation.  I took pieces from all of them.

And get this, rather than make a public post about it, I actually talked to her.

We were able to resolve our issues and remain friends.

I was nervous about talking to her.  I didn’t know what she was going to say or how she was going to react, so I took a baby step and texted her.  I’m not always comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations.  It’s easier to have uncomfortable conversations with my patients because they aren’t going to be in my life for a long time.  When they leave the hospital, I’m not going to have any contact with them.  I will see my family and friends again.  Part of my growing up means learning how to have uncomfortable conversations to build stronger relationships to people that I value.

I also think that it is good to examine your feelings before reacting.  If I had not stepped back and examined my feeling, I might have said something to hurt my friend and that is the last thing that I want to do.

I realized that, for me, it is easier to be angry.  When I’m angry, I blame other people for me being angry even though I chose to be angry.  No one can make me angry.  To tell someone that they hurt me, leaves me in a vulnerable place.  I have to open myself up to that person and they don’t have to respect my feelings.  That person could just tell me that I’m being too sensitive and dismiss my feelings.  I learned that being vulnerable isn’t a bad thing.  It helped me to keep a friend.

I realized that when I’m angry, I’m really just hurt.

My Love is Not Your War

Love is caring.

Love is kind.

Love is patient.

Love forgives.

God loves me even when I don’t do the right thing.

I can’t always go to war with the people who don’t like my future husband.

I won’t allow their opinions of him to make me choose to look at him differently.

Most people have an opinion of him, but they have never had a conversation with him.

I’m still excited about my dreams.

I’m excited to share my life with an amazing person.

I love him.

I’m proud that God chose me.

I’ll always be protective of my family and friends.

They have been such a blessing to me.

When people say bad things about them, I still know the truth.

They have helped me to become this amazing woman that I am now.

My future husband has helped me in ways that he may never know.

His love cannot be my war.

I choose to love.

I choose not to go to war.

Love loves.

Facing my fears has never been easy for me.  I got scared, nervous, and doubtful when I even thought of facing my fears.  I loved to stay in my comfort zone.  I knew what to expect from my life staying in my comfort zone.  No surprises happened either good or bad.  I would go to work and stay home on my days off.  Then I started to realize:

Nothing good can come from me staying in my comfort zone. 

I couldn’t become the woman that I saw in my dreams if I stayed in my comfort zone.  I wouldn’t be happy if I stayed in my comfort zone. My dreams wouldn’t come true if I stayed in my comfort zone.  With the help of my life coach, I started to slowly step out of my comfort zone.

One of my biggest fears, is public speaking.  In college, I took my public speaking class online to avoid having to make a speech in public.  I loved the fact that I could just record myself on my laptop and not have to stand in front of a class room full of people and speak.  I didn’t even have a laptop computer before I signed up for my public speaking class.  I got my laptop computer so that I could record myself.  In my dreams, I see myself onstage performing and doing some public speaking events.  My fear was one of the big reasons that I didn’t want some of my dreams to come true.  I was letting my fear control me.

When I started to write poetry, I decided that I needed to face my fear.  I wanted to be able to share my story and my lessons that I have learned.  I wanted to be able to help people avoid some of the mistakes that I had made.  I wanted to share my story so that maybe people who were going through what I was going through wouldn’t feel alone.  To do that I needed to be able to stand in front of an audience and speak. I looked up an open mic night.  The night before I was so nervous.  I wanted to not go and I even thought of reasons to tell my friends that I had invited to forget it.  I hadn’t seen my friends in a while so I really wanted to see them.  I also wanted to prove to myself how brave I could be.  A part of me wanted to do it and another part of me didn’t want to do it.  The day of the event, I was very nervous.  My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, and I wanted to vomit.  I went to the Apache Café anyway.  I realized that I invited my friends so that I would have some incentive to show up and not bail out.  I wanted to stay at home in my comfort zone.  No one could judge my poetry if they never heard it.  I showed up and I was still nervous.  I had a talk with God before I went on.  I even had a talk with my guardian angels and asked for their help.  Before going on to the stage, I noticed a painting on the wall.  It was bigger than the other painting around it and it featured my future husband.  I literally had to laugh.  God was showing me that I was in the right place.  I nudged my friend and showed her the painting.  I remember her saying that that was really weird.   I told her it was just a sign.

When I got on the stage, something weird happened.  A calmness came over me.  I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing.  I was stepping into my calling.  During the performance, I was actually having fun.  It went by so fast.  Afterwards, I was so proud of myself.  Some people came up to me and said that I had done good.

I still have the fear of public speaking, but it isn’t as big as it once was.

This week, I faced that fear again.  I wanted to see if I would like being a teacher.  I talked to my life coach about going up to the nursing instructor of the nursing students and asking the instructor if I could do a presentation to the students.  I was so nervous and excited at the same time.  I rehearsed what I was going to say.  The night before, I was going to have the conversation with her, I took some precautions so that I wouldn’t be so nervous.  I meditated and I got in the bed early so that I would have enough sleep.  I did some breathing exercises to help me fall asleep.  I was still nervous that next day.  When the time came, my heart was pounding and I forgot my rehearsed script.  I free styled it.  Thankfully I still got what I wanted.  My life coach was right.  When I put myself out there, the universe takes care of me.  The universe and God want me to step into my calling.

I’m never going to like facing my fears.  It’s still scary and I don’t like feeling nervous.  After I face my fears, I feel so happy and energetic.  I feel proud of myself for doing it.  Everything doesn’t always go the way I want it to but at least I tried.  Now that I’m out of my comfort zone, I can’t go back.  I like the surprises that are coming my way.  I like knowing that there are new experiences coming my way.

 

Last weekend was the worst weekend that I have ever had in my nursing career.  I had one patient who had been very verbally abusive towards everyone and sometimes the patient would get physically abusive.  Unfortunately if was my turn to take care of him.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise!  I looked at how other people were reacting to the patient.  I didn’t want to yell at the patient or show that I was really frustrated with the patient.  I thought of how the patient feels and I started to have compassion for the patient.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t put myself in a situation where I would get verbally or physically abused.  When the patient started to get verbally abusive, I walked out of the room.  I have the right not to be verbally abused.  I kept myself positive.  I sang songs in my mind that kept me happy.  I thought of different blog post that I was working on.  I thought of going hiking.  When I got off, I listened to some music.  That helps me to calm down.

I reminded myself that I can only control my emotions. 

I get to choose how I react to the patient.  I didn’t want to react to him in a negative way.  Yes I was frustrated inside but I decided that I was not going to allow the patient’s negativity to decide my emotions.  I had another patient that was actively dying.  Unfortunately, because of the other patient’s actions I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I wanted to with the dying patient and the patient’s family.  Right at shift change, another one of my patients pushed the code blue light and everyone came running to the patient’s room.  The patient had Alzheimers.  The patient got very confused and thought the nurses were in the patient’s bedroom.  The patient got violent.  We were able to calm the patient down eventually.  Overnight the patient hit a nurse and cornered the nurse inside the room with a walker.

The very next day, the verbally abusive patient was nice to me.  The patient said thank you and talked to me.  I was shocked.  The patient still had outbursts with other staff members, but to me, the patient was nice.  I actually had a pretty good shift.  Maybe the patient could feel that I had compassion for him.  Maybe the patient could feel my calm energy that I had.  The Alzheimers patient was nice as well.  I thought about what happened.

The way to change to world is to work on yourself. 

Once I started to work on myself and love myself, all I wanted was to spread that happiness around.  I wanted everyone to feel happy.  My energy changed too.  Misery really and truly loves company.  Happiness is infectious.  The compliment that I always get from people is that they love how I can keep my cool and my smile during stressful times.  I can do that because I take care of myself.  After the weekend, the next day that I had off I went hiking and spent time in nature.  That helps get rid of my stress and makes me feel closer to God.  I have tools that I use to keep my smile.  I can’t help but think that if I had not started to work on myself and my issues then my parents would not be coming to Hawaii to visit me.  It had always been my grandmother’s dream to go to Hawaii.  I like to think that when she heard that I was becoming a nurse, that maybe she prayed that I would get to Hawaii.  By me spreading my happiness and knowledge around that will help other people.  It will cause a ripple effect.  The people around me will be effected and then in turn spread happiness to the other people that they meet. I’m also helping my future in the process.  There are people who are waiting on me to become the woman that I was meant to be.

This week in general has been hard.  I feel like I’m being tested but I’m not failing.  I will not fight fire with fire.  I’ve learned not to post when I’m in my feelings.  I’m still excited about my future.  “I swear your opinion of me, will not make or break me”- Lil Wayne.  I am the queen of signs.  As I’m writing this a motivational song of my future came on.

What other people think of me or my future is none of my business.

No one has lived my life and seen all the signs that I have seen.  People may not believe that I get supernatural help all the time.  One of my guardian angels loves to write poetry.  I can feel their help when I write.  When I’m feeling lonely, I do the electric slide.  I can feel that my guardian angels are dancing with me.  It helps me not to feel lonely.  One of my guardian angels likes to do word find puzzles.  I can feel someone helping when I do them.  I ask God for signs and he provides.  I have always been guided.  When I’m stressed out my energy is blocked.  A few months ago, I was stressed out for 2 weeks.  I couldn’t feel my supernatural beings around me.  I was blocking their energy with my stress.  I couldn’t even think of a blog post.  When I got my stress levels under control, I could feel their energy again.  I want to make this world a better place so that if I have to be reincarnated again it will be better for me.  I don’t know what I’ll choose to be in my next life.  My ultimate goal is to not to have to be reincarnated again.  I want to ascend to the next level.  I can only do that by learning and mastering the lessons that I have been sent here to learn.  I feel like I’m on the right path.  I’m going to make an explosion!!  My power is turned up!!  I’m setting waves into motion!!

One of my favorite movies is Happy Feet Two, in part because the message that I get from this movie is that segregation has never been the answer.

Helping other people and caring about them is the answer.

Here’s what went down (Movie Spoiler Alert!): Happy Feet Two is about penguins who get stuck behind a glacier.  There is no way out.  Mumble has went to go find his son and that is the only reason that he, his son, and two of his son’s friends are not trapped by the glacier.  While coming back home, Mumble and the three kids try to pass an elephant seal.  The elephant seal doesn’t want to let them pass because in the elephant seal culture, an elephant seal doesn’t go backwards.  A fight ensues and the elephant seal ends up getting trapped.  Mumble goes to help the elephant seal.  The elephant seal has two kids that he was trying to teach.  If Mumble had not helped the elephant seal then the elephant seal would have starved to death and two kids would have lost a father.  Mumble didn’t have to help the elephant seal but he does because he wants to and by doing that he made a friend.  At the end of the movie, the different species come together to help the penguins escape the glacier.  A tiny krill ends up being the one to break the ice and saves the penguins.  If the krill had just stayed and accepted his fate (usually krill are just food for bigger animals) then the krill would not have saved the penguins and learned to dance.  Because the animals worked together, and the krill dared to go on a journey, he was able to help out the penguins without him knowing it.

Sometimes you have to go on a journey to find yourself. 

If the species in the movie had of just stayed to themselves then a whole other species would have become extinct.  I see so many parallels between this movie and real life.

We have used segregation in the past and it has never worked.  I propose that we do the opposite.

Only love can stamp out hate.

Whether we know it or not, when one human being is hurt then it affects us all.  For example when a patient gets readmitted to the hospital with the same diagnosis within 30 days of leaving the hospital, then the hospital doesn’t get paid for that readmission.  Even if the patient didn’t do what we set up for the patient to do.  When the patient doesn’t go to the follow up appointments or take the medication prescribed, that in turn affects the hospital. Which in turn affects everyone at the hospital.

A big reason that I love to be a nurse is that I get to talk to a lot of different people about a lot of different subjects.  I get to learn about different cultures and other people’s views.  I may not agree with what they are saying but I can still respect them as a person.

I can disagree with a person and still take care of them.

I wouldn’t want to go to a hospital where I could only take care of people that looked or thought like me.

I like to be around people that have different views than me.  I can learn so much. 

I challenge you to go talk to someone that is different than you.  Actually, do one better, and really listen to them. 

Maybe you will start to realize that you have more in common with them than you thought.  Maybe that person loves the same food or music as you.  Maybe that person is struggling with the same issues as you.  Maybe that person has the same sense of humor as you.  As Gandhi says, “Be the change that you wish to see.”  I don’t want to live in a world where I can only interact with people of my own race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2T0LloeZgU

I in no way own these songs.  I added them because it helps to get my point across.

What you put out into the universe comes back to you.  I recently had an umbrella stolen from me.  At first, I was mad because I really liked that umbrella.  My life coach gave it to me and it was so small it fit into my pocket.  I would get complimented on how cute it was.  The day it got stolen of course it was raining.  I had to walk to my car in the rain.  Then I remembered something that I did years ago.  When I used to work at a retail store, there was this duck umbrella that I liked.  I don’t know who owned it but it was left for a whole month in the break room, so I helped myself to it.  I had that umbrella for about 10 years before it broke.  With this recent incident, I realized that the umbrella was never really mine.  Someone else needed that umbrella, so now it is their umbrella.  I just told myself, “Charge it to the Universe”.  To me that means to let it go and not to worry over what happened.  My time with that object was done.  I used to work at a hospital where my lunch got eaten by someone else about 3 times.  At first, I was upset.  I didn’t have anything to eat for lunch.  Luckily the hospital would give me a voucher, so that I could get something under $5 from either the lunchroom or McDonalds.  I thought about the person who ate my food, whoever that person was.  That person may have been going through some very hard times.  That person may not have had the courage to ask for a voucher for lunch.  That person may not have wanted to tell anybody about what was going on.  So if I could help feed someone who is going through a hard time then I’m happy.  It was just a Lean Cuisine which was about 3 or 4 dollars.  I can spare that to help someone else out.  When you are building up your Universal Currency, sometimes it is your turn to deposit and sometimes it is your turn to withdraw.  Sometimes it is your turn to receive and sometimes it is your turn to give.  There is enough for everybody.  By me “losing” the umbrella, it was my turn to give to the universe.  In the past, I would pay for things and end up not going.  I paid for a plane ticket, dinners, and even a parasailing adventure and didn’t end up going.  I didn’t even ask for a refund because I just didn’t feel like it.  I just told myself that apparently the company needed the money and went about my business.  I didn’t want to tell them that I just changed my mind at the last minute and didn’t want to go.  I didn’t want to tell them that I felt fat that day and wanted to stay at home.  I’m laughing at myself because I’m sure that would not have been a valid reason for a refund.  Now when I pay for something I end up going because now I’m not depressed and I want to go on adventures.  So I just had a Charge It to the Universe moment.  I need to learn to let go or give willingly.  Things come and things go but the lessons that I learn will stay for many lifetimes.