tears are a gift....

How therapeutic is it to have a good cry with great girlfriends? Today at work we had a class on End of Life care that focused on getting in touch with different losses in our life. The only way we, as nurses, can effectively care for a dying patient or a grieving family is to first discover how we ourselves feel about the loss of something or someone that causes another great pain. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of a loss is a death of a loved one---today I was able to grieve, cry and come to grips with various losses I have experienced over my lifetime. Very few of which actually involved the death of a loved one. The girls in the class with me are a wonderful group of friends---we are all the July 2009 nursing residents involved in a year long program to foster our development as new graduate nurses. It has been quite a roller coaster since July---being able to turn to other girls going through the same transition has been such a blessing. I think we have all had a rough few weeks of work and today when we walked in to the class it was like a homecoming of sorts...I felt a sigh of relief just being in their presence. I think we all needed a good cry---and that is truly what we got.

At the end of our cry fest, we walked over to the gift shop and found the perfect comic relief.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5edAecNf0kY (you'll probably have to copy and paste this URL into your web browser, can't figure out how to insert links just yet)
This pig can make you laugh no matter how bad your day was. Seriously--check out this link and order one for your family...its definitly worth the $20.


On another note, my little brother is supposed to graduate on Saturday from WCU--of course this would be the first weekend they are calling for winter weather and being that we are no longer in the north, the whole state has to shut down. I want snow as much as the next guy, but would really love for it to wait until we get home. I so want to watch him cross that stage--I am so proud of both of my brothers' accomplishments and aspirations. I want to be there to watch him become an official college graduate---please Jack Frost, wait until Monday to greet us.



<---Beautiful Baltimore, a view from Canton's boardwalk. I sure miss that water. Here's to dreaming of warmer weather...