A friend from work, Keith, encourages me to practice persistence. It's easy to try something once or twice and give up. It's easy to get frustrated when we try to do something once or twice and fail. So my goal for today was to reflect on persistence and ways that applies to my own life.
Yesterday morning I couldn't remember if I took my first morning pill or not. I had got up, walked into the kitchen, turned on the coffee maker and after that there was a time warp between the Coffee maker and going to the living room to decide which CD I wanted to listen to on my wireless headphones. I decided on "Hymns of Grace," a wonderful CD from Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. At that point I wondered if I took my stomach medication. I had no recollection. So I counted the pills out which were in the bottle which was an easy task as it was a new bottle and yep, there were 30 in it which meant I hadn't taken it.
It was off to CVS later in the day to pick up a weekly pill container with each day''s dosages clearly marked out by time. Now that seems easy enough and I was initially glad I got all the pills for the week in the right compartment. Not so fast, I thought about an hour later while watching TV. I KNEW something was wrong with the the way I put the pills in the box. Back to the kitchen I went and discovered that number 1, the first pill of the morning was put in with the rest of the pills for later in the morning and number 2, two of my medications didn't get put in at all! Persistence. I took a deep breath, refused to get frustrated and told Larry, "I really screwed this up," and promptly did it all over again and it was done right. I could have just given up or asked him to set the meds up for me. But that's giving up and it's persistence which keeps our brains working.
It was great to be in church this morning and enjoy the fellowship and hugs from my church friends, commune with God and enjoy the music.
No frustrating experiences this day and my pills are all set up for a week!
More of my journey:
I left Ohio and went to college in Bethany, Oklahoma where I received a BA degree in English and education. I also went to LPN school in El Reno, Oklahoma and then worked at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City from 1975-1978 on an inpatient psychiatric unit moved to Houston, TX in 1978 and worked at the Texas Medical Center in the nursing Dep't at Methodist Hospital and then back to work on inpatient psychiatry at St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Houston, Harris County Psychiatric Center, the Texas Dep't of Criminal Justice and then the Houston VA Medical Center. In 1987 I was working out at the gym after getting off work one afternoon and met Larry. We've been together now for 18 years. In November of 1994 I transferred to the West Palm Beach VAMC via a short loan to the Miami VA due to construction delays at West Palm Beach. I like the weather in Florida, but hate hurricane season and like many Floridians, start to get nervous when hurricane season approaches. We still have damage to the house from Hurricanes Frances and Wilma which haven't been fixed yet. I've decided to try not to worry about this coming hurricane season, but take each day as it comes.
Gordon
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Sunday, 2/26/06: Persistence
A friend from work, Keith, encourages me to practice persistence. It's easy to try something once or twice and give up. It's easy to get frustrated when we try to do something once or twice and fail. So my goal for today was to reflect on persistence and ways that applies to my own life.
Yesterday morning I couldn't remember if I took my first morning pill or not. I had got up, walked into the kitchen, turned on the coffee maker and after that there was a time warp between the Coffee maker and going to the living room to decide which CD I wanted to listen to on my wireless headphones. I decided on "Hymns of Grace," a wonderful CD from Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. At that point I wondered if I took my stomach medication. I had no recollection. So I counted the pills out which were in the bottle which was an easy task as it was a new bottle and yep, there were 30 in it which meant I hadn't taken it.
It was off to CVS later in the day to pick up a weekly pill container with each day''s dosages clearly marked out by time. Now that seems easy enough and I was initially glad I got all the pills for the week in the right compartment. Not so fast, I thought about an hour later while watching TV. I KNEW something was wrong with the the way I put the pills in the box. Back to the kitchen I went and discovered that number 1, the first pill of the morning was put in with the rest of the pills for later in the morning and number 2, two of my medications didn't get put in at all! Persistence. I took a deep breath, refused to get frustrated and told Larry, "I really screwed this up," and promptly did it all over again and it was done right. I could have just given up or asked him to set the meds up for me. But that's giving up and it's persistence which keeps our brains working.
It was great to be in church this morning and enjoy the fellowship and hugs from my church friends, commune with God and enjoy the music.
No frustrating experiences this day and my pills are all set up for a week!
More of my journey:
I left Ohio and went to college in Bethany, Oklahoma where I received a BA degree in English and education. I also went to LPN school in El Reno, Oklahoma and then worked at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City from 1975-1978 on an inpatient psychiatric unit moved to Houston, TX in 1978 and worked at the Texas Medical Center in the nursing Dep't at Methodist Hospital and then back to work on inpatient psychiatry at St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Houston, Harris County Psychiatric Center, the Texas Dep't of Criminal Justice and then the Houston VA Medical Center. In 1987 I was working out at the gym after getting off work one afternoon and met Larry. We've been together now for 18 years. In November of 1994 I transferred to the West Palm Beach VAMC via a short loan to the Miami VA due to construction delays at West Palm Beach. I like the weather in Florida, but hate hurricane season and like many Floridians, start to get nervous when hurricane season approaches. We still have damage to the house from Hurricanes Frances and Wilma which haven't been fixed yet. I've decided to try not to worry about this coming hurricane season, but take each day as it comes.
Gordon
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