Quote from Forum Archives on January 16, 2003, 2:07 pm

Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>

<><A Nurse's Reply ><>

       What do we see, you ask, what do we see?
       Yes, we are thinking when looking at thee!
       We may seem to be hard when we hurry and fuss,
       But there's many of you, and too few of us.
       We would like far more time to sit by you and talk,
       To bath you and feed you and help you to walk.
       To hear of your lives and the things you have done;
       Your childhood, your husband, your daughter, your son.
       But time is against us, there's too much to do -
       Patients too many, and nurses too few.
       We grieve when we see you so sad and alone,
       With nobody near you, no friends of your own.
       We feel all your pain, and know of your fear
       That nobody cares now your end is so near.
       But nurses are people with feelings as well,
       And when we're together you'll often hear tell
       Of the dearest old Gran in the very end bed,
       And the lovely old Dad, and the things that he said,
       We speak with compassion and love, and feel sad
       When we think of your lives and the joy that you've had,
       When the time has arrived for you to depart,
       You leave us behind with an ache in our heart.
        When you sleep the long sleep, no more worry or care,
        There are other old people, and we must be there.
        So please understand if we hurry and fuss -
        There are many of you, And so few of us.

 

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<><  The Old Barn  ><> 

 

A stranger came by the other day with an offer that set me to thinking.

 

He wanted to buy the old barn that sits out by the highway.
 I told him right off he was crazy. He was a city type, you could tell by his
clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked. He said he was driving
by and saw that beautiful barn sitting out in the tall grass and wanted to
know if it was for sale. I told him he had a funny idea of beauty.

 

Sure, it was a handsome building in its day. But then, there's been a
lot of winters pass with their snow and ice and howling wind. The
summer sun's beat down on that old barn till all the paint's gone,
and the wood has turned silver gray. Now the old building leans a
good deal, looking kind of tired. Yet, that fellow called it beautiful.

 

That set me to thinking. I walked out to the field and just stood there,
gazing at that old barn. The stranger said he planned to use the lumber
to line the walls of his den in a new country home he's building down
the road. He said you couldn't get paint that beautiful. Only years of
standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun,only
that can produce beautiful barn wood.

 

It came to me then. We're a lot like that, you and I. Only it's on the
inside that the beauty grows with us. Sure we turn silver gray too...and
lean a bit more than we did when we were young and full of sap.But
the Good Lord knows what He's doing. And as the years pass He's busy
using the hard wealth of our lives, the dry spells and the stormy seasons,
to do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce.
And to think how often folks holler because they want life easy!

 

They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify
a rich man's house. And I reckon someday you and I'll be hauled off to
Heaven to take on whatever chores the Good Lord has for us on the
Great Sky Ranch.

 

And I suspect we'll be more beautiful then for the seasons we've
been through here...and just maybe even add a bit of beauty to our
Father's house.

 

May today there be peace within you. May you trust God that you
are exactly where you are meant to be.

 

"I believe that friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when
our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

 

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<>< God's Fertilizer ><>
 
During a very bad time in my life last year, I went through a period of the lowest self-esteem I can remember.  Because of the circumstances, I had reduced myself to the lowest common denominator - a pile of crap. (Actually, I used the colloquial term that is four letters, but I'll keep it clean here.)
 
Although I was constantly praying and meditating in order to keep myself from sinking too far into depression, God just didn't seem to be answering me.
 
The other day I had something else happen in my personal life where I was once again placed in that feeling of low self-esteem. Someone I loved dearly had misinterpreted something I said and meant in love and twisted it into something horrible.  My heart broken, I asked God, "Why can't anyone love me?"  Which of course, then translated into, "I'm worthless, un-loveable and nothing but a pile of crap."
 
In my prayers this time, I was reminded of the last time I felt like this and God's response to me this time was no different than it was then.
 
The first time this happened and God did not seem to be answering me, I sat down at the kitchen table and told God to have a seat across from me. And there we chatted. I told him how I felt and why. As sure I was sitting there, I felt him touch my hand and calmly tell me, "Well, even crap has a purpose in my world. It's fertilizer. It enriches the soil and it makes things grow."
 
And yes, of course I broke down and cried. Even when I was feeling my worst, God made me important.
 
The other day when my personal life was caving in around me and I once again felt like God's Fertilizer, I remembered that perhaps something was growing or becoming enriched from this mishap. What it is I don't know, but I am sure He has his hand in it.
 
So remember this the next time you are feeling down and like "crap." You are never worthless, you may just be fertilizer at the moment and you never know what a beautiful garden has been planted beneath you!

 

Have a Blessed Day
Dave and Barbara

 

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