If a praying mantis has crawled into your space

The day didn't turn out the way I expected but ever so grateful anyway.

I knew the day would come when I would have a health challenge as many others have . Well it did. However, I will fast forward to my fortunate outcome, or I will be going off subject, and will never get to tell you about my Praying mantis.

My sons always fill my life  just by their presence. They are my roots to the most meaningful days of my life. So like their Dad was, they are so very special.  Nurses witnessing their strong presence at my bedside, couldn't help but comment in many complimentary ways. I felt their radiating love and at peace.

For awhile, I was in role reversal for a change, being cared for, instead of  "caring for" which allowed me the unique ability to understand the clinical environment, much like  the nurse I am or maybe more like an angel looking down from above.  I filled my soul with my private Lord's Prayer and said it to myself over and over again, never sure that I actually completed it.

Well, all good things did came together and I returned home in a week. My ailing heart battered and bruised but full of the healing love of family and friends.

Seeing the largest Praying Mantis that I ever saw at my door entry, my sister told me it had been there since my arrival home. Always amused by this insect, I decided it was a good omen, and researched a bit. I  found lots of negative things written about this insect. However, I also came across the "spiritual" side. So, because the writer in me preferred to focus on the positive. I again decided this was a good omen.

" If a Praying mantis has crawled into your space :"

 "Usually a Praying mantis makes an appearance when we have flooded our lives with so much business, activity or chaos that we can no longer hear the small voice within us. Taking a step back and some simple meditation would be in order here because the external din we created needs to be quieted so we can come back to our own truth. The Praying mantis always comes to us when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives."

" Allow stillness to feed your creativity, only in the quiet moments will your ideas gel and take root."
 
"The Praying mantis"

http://spirit-animals.com/praying-mantis/


Oh dear, now the poor thing has been lying too still for days.

 However, because someone I love said "leave him there he's still working."  there he rests. That sounds  just fine to me.

 

XOXO Olivia

Robin Williams, you made us laugh until we cried. RIP

Was his life so full of sadness

and his heartache hidden well

Was his humor but the armor

that hid a life of living hell

Did his salty tears fall down

upon the clown face that he wore

was his body wracked with pain

of an illness we never saw

When his laughter died away

was there not a soul sitting by his side

to hold the hands of someone

who could make us laugh until we cried

Was the outside smile upon his face

really coming from within

or just the painted picture

hiding sadness, or unforgiven sin

Our sympathy to all his family and friends

we feel somehow we all have lost

the pleasure of his company

our funny man, who gave us so much

Olivia Bredbenner 8/11/2014

Did I hear rationing healthcare ?

 

We all know the time has come that in order to afford the high standards of care to which we have become accustomed,something has to give or change. It is a hard fact of life and a big step, but it will be taken whether we like it or not.

Rationing health care for seniors sometimes makes sense as long as the priorities are right. Who among us has the least to loose ? It would require a new mind set. A change in how we believe things should be in our health care delivery system. In health care, the goal has always been the pursuit of excellence. However, attaining and maintaining this goal, is now cost prohibitive. Abuses in the Medicare system are wide spread and seems to be self perpetuating. Everyone including seniors should educate themselves and observe how personal physicians, and other health care providers must follow guidelines according to insurance providers, especially how they bill to Medicare. Just as quickly as we complain for the charges we incur personally, so should we if we see inaccurate charges passed on to Medicare. If we don't then we are reinforcing abuses in the system.

There are movements in new directions.“ Savings Beyond Price “ blog. Robert T. Yoki- President and chief value Strategist—Strategic Value Analysis {R} In Health care. The early stages for changing health care are as visible as they are necessary .

Yoki quotes Aristotle in saying ” Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.” He states that training is the path to improvement ,reducing resistance to change and changing behaviors. The goal being “unfreezing” existing thinking and to replace it with new ideas, along with new learned behaviors and practices. Ideally they are then “frozen” to create a whole new way of doing things.

To change health care Yoki advocates taking one small step in the right direction. So where do we begin. Wiser minds than I , are hopefully attempting to redesign our health care delivery system. In our life time I imagine these changes will not come easily. But they have come non the less.

Perhaps rationing health care for seniors is the beginning of the beginning, but certainly not the end of a long unpaved road. It will not be a pleasure trip, maybe more like a survival course. Hopefully ,the next generation will benefit from a refined health care delivery system.

In the USA,we would be wise to use our advances in health care with a greater respect. To consider carefully about those that would benefit most and how we are to pay for the delivery and the expertise needed. Limits in the pursuit of a prolonged life beyond what is reasonable and after it is of no value to the patient, is not considered morally right by those of us that have such a compass. Yet , we continue to struggle with its ambiguity and against tides.

There are religious implications against the removal of a feeding tube, on a poor lifeless and mindless soul . Considered wrong by some, as it is said, there is considerate merit to man's suffering.

We need a change . We need appropriate health care that does not hold over its head the threats of disproportionate liability for those in its practice . Something that has often lead to “ defensive medicine” a practice that has always meant increasing the cost of the delivery of health care.

By the provision of broad stroke education to the public on self care as it relates to basic health maintenance, and chronic disease management, has been known to maintain optimum health for those who practice it. Improved health of the general population ,is a possibility who's time has come.

Will the change be to socialized medicine ? Many other countries that have this in place are unhappy with it and others continue to come to the shores of our United States for our high standards of care. As it is, health care is designed for the young and the well. Others who are our citizens , must walk away as it is not within their reach in the new plans.

We have been both blessed and cursed by our success in the delivery of our health care. We still are one of the best. Hopefully, in our attempt to make it affordable ,we don't have to “throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Have you seen my Muse ?

Hello my dear followers

I'm on a mission to find my long lost muse. I miss him and his company at my side. Especially his silent manner that left my mind free to fill empty pages with stories and musings of the moment. He didn't leave in a ranting rage, he just quietly slipped out the door when a man, someone special, came into my life
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In spite of my full life, I long for the time for free thought and space for creativity. I miss my unassuming muse, when I search among the archives of my mind, Where I find the loose and meaningless mantra of my thoughts and fine tune them until I make sense of them and turn them into a story.

If you see him please send him back to me. You will recognize him because of his red curly hair. Although it could have a spattering of gray. Until he returns my "creativity " is packed inside with all of life's other clutter. Tell him I am sorry that I let him down and that I have fluffed up his pillow on his chair and set it in the sunlight. A seat he always loved.
Thank you, Olivia

Sometimes its this and sometimes its that

Hello my dear followers, I'm back after going nowhere, well not really, since I last posted  my life has been in full motion. My blog took last place in the long list of things going on in my life.  All of them good I might add ,even though my muse left town for awhile.
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Poetry has often come easy to me, so I have opened this door to creativity.

I will sputter and spurt bursts of random thoughts and splash it across my pages here. I hope that you will be touched by my words, or even inspired to write and add your own color to your world and mine.
Thank you for stopping by,
Olivia


Sometimes it's this and sometimes its that,
Like it's too cold or too hot
We have too little or too much
Or we're too thin or too fat.

Sometimes it's this and sometimes it's that,
We use every excuse under the sun.
Always avoiding what needs to be done,
The couch potato in us feels like more fun

Sometimes it's this and sometimes it's that,
Warming when the ray of sunshine comes our way.
With long walks and footsteps waiting in the sand,
Yet we know that the tides will soon wash them away

Sometimes it's this and sometimes it's that,
Troubled souls exhausted, yet, with feet firmly planted others are born
Without our will, today will be the yesterday that we all fretted about.
While our tomorrows will always bless us with every promised new dawn.


THINGS THAT SADDEN MY HEART

http://www.helium.com/items/2435067-no-rock-a-bye-baby

A poem in honor of the children

Twas 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what happened earlier that day.
"where are we ?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. " we're spending christmas at God's house."

when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face

and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad"
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and the woe

then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land."
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools! "

then He and the children, stood up without a sound.
"come now my children,let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

and I heard Him proclaim as he walked out of sight.
"in the midst of this darkness,  I AM STILL THE LIGHT ! "

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt Wolf, Pa

Why not agree to disagree and move on ?

As we are flooded by hostility and swimming in the ever widening divide between us, most of us are beginning to  feel the strain. Being politically correct is now taking a toll on us.  Even with close friends I  now use extra care to reinforce our love for each other in spite of our political differences today.



What ever happened to having a difference of opinion and agree upon just that ? Our values are unique to us individually as are our mixed cultures that have melded into our America.

We don't have to agree on everything, but we should be respecting  each other and the spices we each choose to color our own individual lives. They should be part of the tapestry of our America. We are all just a parade through history, going down our crowded streets and it is our differences that makes the parade, by adding color to all of our lives.

We don't have to be Italian to enjoy Italian food or a fisherman to eat fish. Yet, our trend toward a self destructive society is likely to make hash of us . Instead of highlighting what's special in each of us,and that which makes us uniquely who we are.

Why must the values that so many of us hold true be traded or replaced by a new age believing  "their" way is the only right way ?  To be happy is a right belonging to all of us, or at least that's the way it used to be. Why must there be only one path to that goal?


We risk in the end that we will all stand on barren land; absent of each other because we failed to see that inside out we are all the same, and even look like each other's brother.