Too sweet?

This will be brief, because i SHOULD be studying, but i read something interesting last night. You know how as Christians, we're called to be salt?

"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men."
Matthew 5:13 (Amplified Bible)

Have you ever used sugar instead of salt? Or salt instead of sugar? (Sorry Melissa, i don't mean this to be an attack on your cooking...) I imagine salt as authentic Christianity, truly loving God and loving others. Sugar is the rhetoric, the drama, the hypocracy that Christianity has become associated with. To the world, superficially, sugar and salt look the same. Yet clearly, once you've tasted them, they're radically different. Salt preserves what is good. Salt in an open wound stings, but it also heals. Sugar turns to fat and gives you cavities. I don't want to take this metaphor too much further, but you get my drift.

I wonder if i'm a little too sweet some days. Do i just say what i know people want to hear, to make them feel better about themselves? Am i sweet on the lips, but bitter in the stomach? Should i be a little saltier? Salt in an open wound stings, but it also heals. Preserve what is good. Be different.

Thoughts to ponder.

(Next week, tune in for the metaphor of the ketchup and mustard...)

I'll be there for you

Sorry, not the Friends theme song...though this post strongly relates to friends. I was thinking yesterday about how my friends are so important to me, and how i want to be there with them for important things/moments in their lives, or how i want to experience things with them. I know many of the following moments or things might not happen, but i can dream.

I want to be Melissa's Doula.

I want to work with Shandell on the same unit when we're nurses.

I want to travel with Shannon somewhere to do something practical together.

I want to go to Africa with Sharon, Shannon, Barbara and Andrea.

I want to chase a penguin with Trevor.

I want to go Kayaking with Jarid.

I want to watch Dani go deep water soloing.

I want be with Cyler when he takes a really cool amazing picture.

I want to be at the Stanley Cup final with Marisa when the Flames take it! ( or at least watching the game with her)

I want to walk Commercial Drive again with Ryan, and hear him drum again.

I want to go to a Ben Harper concert with Barbara and Kevin.

I want to tour the set of LOST with Dani and Jo, as we hang out in Hawaii with Jack, Sawyer, and maybe Boon. (Let's beat up Henry too)

I want to watch the sun actually rise with Andrea and Melissa. (maybe we need to do this in the winter ;)

I want to be at any and every wedding that involves any of the above people getting married.

Tailgate.

That's my list. OH, and an official announcement.

DECEMBER 23, 2006.

Book it off.

By Popular Demand...

I've been procrastinating on this post. There's alot on my heart right now, and verbalizing it has gotten harder and harder. Let's start with the easy stuff. My Post-partum rotation is almost over. I got to give lots of newborn baths and ask lots of awkward questions, and learn some new assessments. Amazingly enough, after witnessing a few births, i'm not terrified into adoption territory, though it would be awesome to adopt. I also created a new bond with Melissa, i'm going to be her doula! We know this is thinking ridiculously ahead, but it's still all good.
Early last month, Kirk spoke at our little Church. He talked about his little girl, Bree, collecting beanie babies to take to Africa, for all the kids without mommies and daddies. This touched me, and i gathered all of me 'n Melissa's beanies and gave them to Kirk the following weekend. This man, this family, live with such faith, and i admire them very much. Kirk believes in his daughter, and wants to take the whole family to Rwanda next year. (whole family meaning wife and four kids!) Kirk has a friend doing missions there, working with street kids, orphans, women and refugees. I asked him "could they use a nurse?". He said of course! and he hooked me up with Jen. We've e-mailed back and forth a bit already, and i really want to go. I need to see for myself what AIDS is doing to Africa, and what politics have allowed AIDS to do to Africa. So Kirk and i have talked about me going to Rwanda at the same time as them. I could help them look out for the kids, and i could get some idea of where my place might be there. If it is there.
For any of you who know me and my family, you know my biggest concern is my parents. Last summer i got the "Over my dead body" speech. But i brought it up again, and i got the "you're an adult now, it's your life" speech. WOW. unexpected. freeing. a little scary. Basically, if i can pull it together financially myself, they won't stop me.
Another opportunity is through University. I could study for a semester in KENYA...that would be amazing! I'd pay U of C Tuition and Res fees, and study there starting January 2008. The catch is, only 2 people can go. And i don't have all my options done yet. My parents would be far more accepting of that.
The cool part of all this, my conviction to serve in Africa, is that i've been more focused on my schoolwork, because i see everything as "maybe i'll have to apply this in Africa". Especially this maternity stuff. Pediatrics is next, and i LOVE working/playing with children!
Cyler took me 'n Dani and Diana to a documentary, Uganda Rising. Ryan, you would've been really proud, it talked about the Invisible Children, and the horrible things that happened there, the horrible things that continue to happen there. I just wanted to reach inside that screen and hug each and every child on the screen, and tell them how beautiful they are, and how much God loves them.
I learned something about what it means to be an RN this week. My goal as a nurse is to look at my patient as a whole person, not a physical body sick with disease. I look at the physical in the context of the social, psychological, and spiritual. Nursing is the only profession that does this. Doctors treat you physically, psychologists - mentally, social workers - socially. Occupational therapists help you get back to work, respiratory therapists work on your lungs, the chaplain handles your spirit. Don't get me wrong, these jobs are critically important! It's just that nurses are called to identify problems in each of these areas and help the patient with them first. If the issue is too big, we refer them to the specialists. I love the fact that my job description does not end with the physical interventions, like IV's, dressing changes and hygiene.
I want to find an organization to partner where i'd be encouraged to be that kind of nurse; to treat the patient physically in the context of everything else going on in their lives.