My life is consumed with the care and feeding of an older generation. It is my love and my passion. Only recently did it hit me how great the loss will be when the “Silent” generation is gone and the “Boomers” take on the role of the Old and Wise. I wonder if my generation will be able to carry on, to follow in the foot steps of a generation that blindly followed their leaders into war for love of their great country, a generation that produced ideas like the North Platte Nebraska Canteen. The Canteen was a stop ...continued...

Prologue Not since the world was made was there ever seen or won so great a treasure, or so noble or so rich, nor in the time of Alexander, nor in the time of Charlemagne, nor before, nor after, nor do I think myself that in the forty richest cities of the world had thebeen so much wealth as was found in Constantinople. For the Greeks say that two-thirds of the wealth of this world is in Constantinople and the other third scattered throughout the world. {Robert of Clari, a French crusader, who was in Constantinople in 1204 when it was pillaged} . The spider weaves the curtains in t ...continued...

My entire world changed, days before my eighth birthday. The years of pain and stress had taken its toll on my guardian angel. I awoke one morning to find her out of sorts. Something major was happening to her health. The last I remember of this time was trying to talk to her, but she had gone deaf. I watched her intently as she sat in front of her dressing table getting ready to go to the doctor. Little did I know that this would be the last time my guardian angel would be with me. My mother suffered a stroke, and was left paralysed the ...continued...

I think what I find quite amazing is that I can remember as far back as being no older than 2 to 3 years old. Some memories were good and some not so much. I was actually a pretty happy child, never really got into much trouble, unlike my older brother and my little sister. I can remember that the one word we did not say, was the word" shut up" to one another, if you did well you can pretty twell imagine what would happen. I had to find out the hard way one morning, let's just say yuck! I told my brother to shut up because he had said something to me that made me mad, unfor ...continued...

Hello, everyone, I am not a writer at all but its something i have been thinking about doing since i was 12 years old. i Have a story i want to tell. I dont want to tell it to make money or get famous. Its a story i want to tell everyone who is or have went through stuff an cant seem to get through it. to let people know everything happens for a reason something good always comes from something bad. The story i want to tell is about my life from the age of ten till the age of 20. From me being molested to me getting married. I think i could get to a lot of people. I want to do something good f ...continued...

WHAT WOULD MARTIN THINK? Martin Luther King Day Northern Iraq 2004 Attending a celebration service recognizing the birth and accomplishments of Dr. King is not altogether unusual on a day set aside as a holiday in memory of the man and his impact on the future fabric of our nation. What makes this year’s attendance unusual is that I’m in Iraq. I’m deployed to the northern-most airfield in Free Iraq. As a member of a medical unit assigned to Freedom Air Base, ...continued...

I always think about my past, and what my past brought me that woud trap me up inside, surround and remind me of fear, disappointments, and hopelessness. Once it would help me with struggles so many things I done. Like the song said to me, “There’s always tomorrow..,” but the past was monopolizing my present today. So what do I do with all that baggage inside of me? How did I sort it all out? I know that my troubles and lack of resolution with my past affects important relationships. The peopl ...continued...

Sitting here in Oslo Norway the past few days waiting for our flight back to the States we had the opportunity to rest, recharge and go to the Polar Museum in town as Norway has one of the most storied reputations for Arctic and Antarctic exploration in the world. Adventurers such as Amundsen, the first to reach the south pole and cross the Northwest Passage, and Nansen, famous for his expedition to the north polar icecap in the ship named Fram which was frozen into the ice intent on floating with the drifting icecap both hail from here. After experiencing the unrel ...continued...

After review of the course syllabus, learning goals, and the results of my self-assessment, my learning goals for the rest of this course are: 1. To gain more knowledge about numerous cultural beliefs, practices, attitudes, and ways of communicating as to better understand how this effects people’s view on medicine so I can become more aware of how to best serve patients of all different cultures in my future. 2. To understand my own cultural experiences and how these influence biases that I possess and work to overcome these biases to become a more culturally competent ...continued...

North Pole ...continued...

From the start it was like a secret society. You needed to know the handshake or password to get information. I guess that is why it took so long to start this incredible journey as a writer. Since the age of six, when I first started to read, a book was always under my nose. This started it, and from that point reading the written word became a very important part of my life. I could not tell you how many books I have read, or plan to in the near or far future. It started in 2011, when an uncontrollable desire to write short stories took over. I would hammer out words between work assig ...continued...

Driving down the road on a beautiful pre-Autumn day, the large red sign catches my eye. "Estate Sale 50% Off"…. I am torn, yet curiosity draws my car to the curb. As an avid garage sale seeker, I often enjoy the victory of the bargains I find while rummaging through items no longer wanted by the owner. But the items of my garage sale victories are most often found outside on the hard cement driveway or garage…unattached to story, emotion or the life that shared its journey. This Autumn day I find myself entering the E ...continued...

In November of 1997 at the age of 24, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Several months before I was diagnosed, I had given birth to my third child, a son. I was excited and so happy to have a full term and happy bouncing baby boy. One day I was lying down on my couch relaxing while my baby was having his nap, when I looked down upon my chest and noticed a lump protruding out on the left side of my breast. It was hard and not moveable. I asked my boyfriend at the time to look at it. He said should see the doctor right away. So called my gynecologist to sched ...continued...

Affirmations Morning thoughts are very important because it establishes our attitudes for the day. What do you think about when you first wake up. Are you irritated? Are you unmotivated? Do you hit the snooze over and over. Remember, the top don’t act like this. Neither do you. Nothing changes overnight, and for that matter over a week. Commit to the following exercise. What do you have to loose? The majority of people are not doing mental programming. The majority of people are not successful. As (??) said &ldquo ...continued...

Living so close to our school had a couple of advantages: I could go home for my lunch and in the evenings Tommy and l would squeeze through the railings and have a kick about in the playground. One evening we climbed onto the toilet roof to look for balls. I was busy trying to dislodge a tennis ball from the gutter when I heard loud knocking coming from the main building, I glanced over and saw the stern face of our headmistress, ...continued...