I am a nurse. I will be a nurse until I die. So, this weekend, January 27th, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was murdered by ICE. A NURSE! A nurse who took care of VA patients. That afternoon, I turned off. I was traumatized because in my younger days, I might have been A NURSE carrying a first aid pack. God knows I did enough of that as a Red Cross NURSE.

Let’s also talk younger days. I remember when students were killed at Kent State on May 4, 1970, by the National Guard in Ohio. Whenever Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s song Ohio comes on the radio, not only do I tear up but my husband also tears up. Maybe you do too, if you are aware of the history. Other significant events include the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre (3 dead) and the Jackson State killings (2 dead). We don’t hear about them as much as Kent State because they were African American students.

I am still traumatized as of Monday, but I am now able to articulate my horror that our government is again condoning violence against citizens. ICE is a terrorist organization condoned by our government against US citizens and legally entering immigrants, short circuiting the processes we have in place to grant citizenship, using children as bait. I can’t stress this enough: We will see more bloodshed unless all of us join hands to stop it.

Will I throw my 71-year-old body to the front lines? I don’t know yet. I know my husband needs me at home to help him with an impeding surgery so all I can say right now is “not yet.” Will I write my senators and representatives? Yes! Will I sign petitions? Yes! Will I continue to illuminate injustice and citizen rights being squashed? Yes.

Let’s do this. Let’s all work together to whack those knuckles of those politicians who think we are sheep. We are not sheep. This world needs our heroes. And Alex, is a hero. He was trying to protect someone. Don’t let anyone say differently. Alex is a hero. Alex is a hero. Alex is a hero!

While visiting someone today, I sat and watched the branches move to the wind. It has been a a windy day in Dayton, Ohio. A cold front is moving in after a balmy day of 63 degrees. Tomorrow, it will be 16 degrees. The old saying is: “If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour.” In Dayton, we have hints and hopes of spring being killed by frigid temps the next day. I will miss that last couple of days of warmth. But, then again, I will curse the heat and sweat within three months.

I found myself thinking about the branches waving in the wind. There is a great deal of flexibility in those branches preventing those branches from snapping in those 45 mile an hour wind gusts we had. The ability to be flexible helped the trees as well as humans in real life. In order to keep growing in the face of adversity, humans need to be flexible. Mostly, we have learned to be danger avoidant. We order our surroundings in order to survive winter. We go to college to secure degrees to get good paying jobs. Likewise, others learn a trade or a job skill to improve employability.

For me, I am at the beginning of the end of my work history. I retired from paid work, moved through volunteer work to writing grants to continue pushing out education on environmental issues. Sometimes, I am not writing the grants but housing them under my 501c3 to make a better world. We all want a better world from ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. But can we say we are certain our grandchildren will have a better life than ours? Sure, if they work hard, but what if our water can never be good enough because the Environmental Protection Agency is cut so thin?

What if the jobs our grandchildren work are unsafe because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is closed because of a bill someone pushed through for business? What if there is a measles epidemic and children die from a preventable disease? Oh, wait, that is now happening in Texas. There is a preventable measles outbreak in Texas and is starting in Kentucky because of this “belief” that immunizations are harmful.

Sometimes, individual beliefs or prejudices cause pain and death. It is when our thought processes become so rigid that we lose our flexibility to bend with the wind. And, in that moment, we need someone to stroke our cheek, soothe our frayed nerves, and bring us back to reality, not chaos. The nurse in me wants to do that. I want to bring us back to reality where diplomacy matters. Where there is a free flow of thoughts and ideas instead of the bully silencing reason. I just can’t turn off the news to bring myself peace. I want to help others and myself make peace.

Let’s make peace together. Watch the news. Look for the one thing you can do to make a difference.

Have you ever borne a heavy burden for so long that you were weary to the very bone and just longed to throw it off?  I am studying chapter one of …

Weary to the bone

Many wellness and spiritual gurus will tell you to use this period of time to reflect between the winter solstice and the turn of the New Year. Reflection is good, however rumination is not. You cannot change the past no matter how hard you dwell on your “what ifs” and “could or should haves.”

When the year has been bad, or even the last couple of years with the pandemic, isolation, and wars, Christians talk about this being the EndTimes. No one knows when the Endtimes will be. It is like looking into a very dark mirror thinking we see something. I don’t believe in the “EndTimes” as much as I believe in “Man’s” foolishness. Men, not women, have initiated the wars and our consumerism has potentiated pandemics, when men say, “How are we going to pay for this?”

We are all closer to death as each year rolls through. Sometimes, we have eventful years of joy or defeat. Other years moved swiftly through without one memory taking a foot hold. Regardless, we live! Some of us move forward and work to change the current paradigm of consumerism and greed, like moving from a fossil fuel economy to wind and solar, free healthcare and immunizations, and food and water that is free from toxins. We want a better world.

So, instead of dwelling with and on the past, move forward in this world. Be the change you want to see. Sign on letters for a better world. Stop using all plastics in your household, donate to food banks, write the leaders to stop making war on people, and start working together towards this better world.

I am visualizing a better world. I show up and collaborate for that better world. And one day, it will be a better world even if I am not there to see it.

If you don’t know by now, I am an environmental activist. I don’t always hawk it or reveal it on LinkedIn because LinkedIn is for business. And, I am always about business. And, I posted this on LinkedIn.

And, here’s the issue. Businesses must consider an organizational change on how they are doing business. #plastics use is not #sustainable.

Please consider signing up and listening to this insightful presentation on how #plastics are the new super polluter #pollution.

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Donating money isn’t the only way to give to charitable organizations, many of whom rely on volunteers for various services. If you find yourself with free time on your hands on your weekend, or during the week, you could consider putting in some community service. Not only will you help a good cause, but it can also be a way to meet people and learn new skills.

You want to get involved and give back to the community, but can’t fit another big commitment into your busy schedule? Then microvolunteering might just be the thing.

Microvolunteering is a small, bite-sized task or project, that is quick and easy to perform. Best of all there’s a range of things you could do online, in as little as 30 minutes. Donating processing time on your computer, signing an online petition, or promoting a charity on social media are all examples of microvolunteering that you could do today.