Usually it's Law and Order. A Hallmark movie. Or America's Funniest Home Videos. But lately it's been "Touched by An Angel". It's the show that is blaring as I walk into my elderly clients home at 9pm, reporting for my 12 hour overnight shift. So I sit in a red and white checkered chair and watch with them.
And it's been getting me. Its the same thing; someone is dying and has to make peace with their family, an occasional orphan, an old man who finds out that money isn't everything in the end.. whatever. But the show is actually pretty good. Tonight there was a quote in it that I found inspiring, "Tess" the soulful black angel just miraculously got cured from Alzheimers and is talking to another elderly woman at the nursing home, telling her all the great things about the after life, but she says at one point (throw in some "honeys" and "babys") that "right now I am talking to your soul, I'm not talking to your mind, but your soul".
I think that if we talked to peoples souls, then we would mean a lot more. We talk to fill space, we don't even listen half the time because all we are thinking about is what we are going to say in response as soon as the person we are talking to shuts up.
Our words are often void of meaning. But if we direct our thoughts to the soul, and not the mind, imagine how much more meaningful our words would be... baby.

What do you see?

I remember looking into my newborn nieces eyes thinking about all the things that she would see in her life, wondering what she would remember, what she would think about this world..

It's funny that we all see things differently. What is ugly to someone may be beautiful to the person next to them, what draws us to certain things? Certain scenery, colors, styles..


How we view the world is another thing. We can take the sorrows that we see and let it affect us, and do something about it, or we can simply close our eyes.

Week in Pictures

I made some owls....

My cousin Danielle and I enjoying time at....

B414 in Lansing, Michigan

Making some of these cuties as soon as my owls (pictures coming soon) are done..

It’s so cliché, but I wanted to be a nurse “to help people”. There are so many people out there that are hurting, are sick, and just need someone to give them an extra few minutes, hold their hand, to make them feel cared about. It’s the smallest gestures that make us feel the human connection, that warms our hearts and for a moment or for an eternity makes us remember that there is goodness in the world. Something we can appreciate and take away from.
But doing the work I do is teaching me that although I feel like I am helping, I feel like the people I care for are helping ME, in so many ways. I’m inspired by those we are clinging to life, but still have this luminescent hope that shines through them, and even for those who don’t have the hope, they have the honesty to want to surrender, to say they had a good life and are now ready to go on.
I’m filled with joy, when a client who I’ve been assisting for over a year now tells me he considers me to be one of his closest friends. How your smile just made someone's day. When you feel at the end of the day that you truly made a difference -It’s so rewarding. We have opportunities everyday to make differences, take those opportunities.

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile."- Mother Teresa

This last weekend my sister, dad and I took my niece to Preusses Pets in Lansing's Old Town

She picked out a cute little pink fish :)

The Best Meal I've Ever Had..

Our stomachs weren’t quite ready for food, but our eyes scared us into hunger. We were in the middle of nowhere. Ein Gedi. We were warned that we should bring food, but for sure there had to be at least one restaurant, and there was, except that it closed at 2:00, and now it was nearing 7:00 and there was nothing. As we walked, swallowing hot desert air, an inventory was taken
“I have that bag of nuts we could eat” said Klara
“I have a few packets of oatmeal and 2 rolls from earlier today”
Truth is, it could have held us over until the breakfast that the hostel offered in the morning, but just knowing that we couldn’t go out and get anything to eat made us panic. I mean, it was for one night. People can go plenty of days without eating. And suddenly the leafs on the trees looked like lemons, and the thought of hunting and devouring an Ibex crossed my mind. The sulfur like smell coming from the sea rolled down the road, mixing with the food smells from the other hostel.
“Smells like fart and food” Klara laughed as we treaded up the steep hill
A few hours earlier as we were sitting waiting for Cely’s bus, I felt a plop against my thigh and looked down to see a yellow splat. I looked up and saw the bird perfectly aligned with my leg, and Cely started clapping and cheering like I had just set a world record.
“It’s good luck!!’ she exclaimed as she handed me a tissue
I wiped it off and handed it back to her,
“Here you can have the luck”, but in my head I was hoping that the good luck would come in an edible form.
So back at the Field School, after my shower, I find Klara outside talking to someone she had just met. I sit down, we are overlooking the dead sea, and I realize the new friend of ours works at the place. “So you can get us food?”
“You want food? I have food, but I can’t cook. If you want to cook it, you can have it”
The offer was taken.
“In Israel you can’t get something for nothing. You will really cook? I will call you around 8:00” Dor said as he walked off
The anticipation for a good meal was more than I could take. He picked us up in a golf cart and took us back to his apartment at the Field School. The water was already boiling with spaghetti noodles floating. He said he got it started for us, but he had to leave and go back to work.“Do you know how to make sauce?”
“Yeah, I’m really good at sauces” Klara said, “what do you have?”
He gave us tomatoes, onions and garlic. Olive oil and spices.
“My mom gave me this recipe” he said as he looked at it clipped to a board next to the stove and began to read off the directions, then he was off, “don’t wait for me, I’ll be back in about an hour..”
So we diced and sautéed, grooved to the music he put on for us, shoed away the roaches coming in from out front and tried to make due with what we had, anxiously hoping that it would taste great.
And I think it was the best meal I have ever had. Thank goodness for the bird making its business on my leg.

My Favorite Blog..

http://pikaland.com/

I looooove Pika Land :) :)

"This is so amazing....."

Hiking in Ein Gedi National Park in the Negev, Israel. It's a sight to see; waterfalls streaming down giant rocks, tiny caves and a view of the Dead Sea from the top.

Never felt so close to nature, so small, so accomplished.. so tired..

Ma Nishma

June 14, 2009:
I am sitting in a coffee shop in the busy and energetic Tel Aviv. It is almost 8:00 pm and its full. They are playing Elvis. The waiter speaks ok Hebrew but perfect English. The three women next to me are arguing, their Hebrew forming sentences that don't end, so they speak over each other. I can hear the noise on Dizengoff; vespas flying by, the breeze of the bus, and of course the consistant honking of the taxis. I am trying to write of my experiences here in Israel, but nothing specific comes to mind.

What I will write won't correctly paint the picture.

You can't smell the spice shop in th old city, or the shwarma roasting in Tiberius, or taste of military cornflakes bathed in chocolate milk first thing in the morning. The sound of the rush of soldiers getting home on a Thursday afternoon, the emotional sight of the Western Wall as you walk towards it as the sun is getting low.

I can tell you I walked the entire outside perimeter of the Old City in Jerusalem, randomly walking past churches and holy sites, gazing at the historic walls that enclose a city that is thousands of years old and where the Arab, Jewish, Christian and Armenian quarters blend into eachother. I can't describe the cacophony of vendors shouting, the feel of feet gliding on the smooth and slippery Jerusalem stone side streets, the sight of the sun glowing off the dome of the rock, the taste of fresh squeezed orange juice bought from a Moraccan man who told me his life story, with his 5 year old son, the youngest of 8 waking up from a nap next to me.

I can tell you that I hiked in the desert, swam in the dead sea and walked through the ancient remains of a city build by Herod the Great. But the feeling on your skin that the dead sea leaves behind, the sound of a waterfall in the middle of the desert, the pride you feel after you see how far up you hiked, those are memories.I can tell you stories, but I can't describe the memories. The images, the smells, the feelings that this place instills in me. People come here for different reasons. Some are religious, some have family here, others are Zionist, and most are here for reasons that can't quite be explained. It is a beautiful, magical and mysterious place. And I just found out my waiter is from Detroit. Now, that is truly Israel :)