One of my faves

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

My Studio

A photography magazine I was reading said to think of your yard or garden as your studio. Though I had not used those words, that's exactly how I have thought of it for the past couple of years. Though I often come back inside having been bitten by some unphotogenic bugs, I enjoy watching how nature changes in my little earthly spot. It is different every day. Various plants sprout, grow, flower and wither and different types of insects come to do to what Nature has intended. Sunlight and dew, rain and wind play their roles in the changing scene. Now that we are into September, the spent tomato plants are dry and scraggly and need to be tossed into the compost, their usefulness past. But it is time for the sedum to bloom, for the morning glories to color the faded fence, and new bugs to photograph. Nature gives us many lessons and delights.

Thank you

Thank you, Rob and Susan, for a lovely birthday celebration.

This is what clinicals are for

I have started back with my teaching duties and though it can be exhausting, it is also rewarding. My students this week were six women of ages twenty to fifty. It is rare to have a student without some anxiety as they start their first day in a psychiatric hospital. (Anxiety in this situation is in fact a good thing as long as it doesn't get the upper hand. It can keep us watchful and on our toes.) The cute twenty year old student visibly and admittedly had the most, so I assigned her to a patient I knew would be cooperative and talkative. After a good chat with him the first day she said, "I feel like I have run a marathon." She was pumped. All the students went on to interact with other patients and attend activities with them. On the start of second day she appeared as if her fears were behind her, and by the end she had some positive words to say. Though I can't quote verbatim, the essence was that she had learned to look at patients in a whole new way. Not just as a body part that needed fixing, but as a whole human being with a life story and feelings. That is what I hope students will learn in this rotation, especially the young ones. I praised her for her insight and developing maturity.

Beautiful eggs!

One of my students brought me these eggs today. They are from her farm and she hand feeds the chickens herself. I was so glad to get them.