Carin's Gratitude

At Into The Fire ceramic painting studio with helpful staff, Arvada The Christmas season is here!  Wait, it is Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. Some streets are already decorated with Christmas lights. I am not ready yet.  "Can we put the Christmas tree up?" "Not yet. Let's wait until this weekend," I told my daughter. We have a small foil tree that literally takes only five minutes to put up and decorate, ready with its light and all. Anyway, it does not matter. It is too early to put a tree up. I feel hurried.  Can I take the time to be thankful first? Of course, I can. It is the Thanksgiving week, anyway . .  .It will be Thanksgiving Thursday before the Black Friday Christmas shopping event.  Moving on, I am thankful for: The freedom I get to enjoy in America. "God Bless America, my home sweet home." The approaching year to give me a chance to start anew. I want to be more productive. I already start

It has been a good week, not perfect but good. Hey, I'm here and have the energy and time to post. My theme this week is -- you guessed it. Time ! This week I went to a co-worker's retirement party and enjoyed some nursing cake too. Levell retired after serving the hospital as a nurse for over 30 years. We met at the brewery and the place was packed with mostly her friends and coworkers. I kissed her goodbye and she had this tears of joy and maybe sadness as well that she is leaving. God bless her. A walk in the park around the lake is great with dog Velvet and best when my daughter tags along too even though she stays on the concrete with her skateboard. Going back, she offered to hold V's leash. Velvet ran pulling her. It was funny to look at. Velvet seemed to really like pulling my daughter like pulling a kid on a sled. We had a great time . I finally tried acupuncture that I had been dreading to do to alleviate some aches, anxiety, stress, and over

At work, we talk about this often—quality of life. What is the quality of life? It varies from person to person, where we are at right now, where we have been, what we've been through. To me, life is good, when I see my children smiling when they are successful in school or at work, and eventually when they become self-sufficient. It can be most of the parents' dream. Quality of life is good enough for me if I am free of life-changing illness that prevents me from providing for my family, free of severe pain, free of severe anxiety. I had been there and can't imagine going back. At work, in intensive care unit, many families and patients face the situation of whether to go on and on with aggressive medical treatment. What is the best possible scenario? How much suffering does it take to have a chance of 5 percent or so in life and live with, maybe breathing through a tracheostomy, feeding through a tube, not being able to walk again, and be bedridden? Often times, t