Today instead of the usual routine of getting up and going to my normal job, I had to attend a mandatory class on personal safety. Because of the job I do, I sometimes go to a person's home to provide patient care. In the past 12 years, I have not run into anything that was too scary...unless you would consider attack turkeys chasing you to your car dangerous. Luckily for me, the turkeys lost interest when they found cracker crumbs on the ground.
I woke up this morning already grumbling to myself that this meeting was not what I wanted to be doing for the next 3 hours. I had the preconceived notion that for 3 hours I would be sitting and listening to some corporate person drone on about how to stay safe out in the homecare environment. A place where few corporate people have dared to travel.
When I got there, I found a back seat, in hopes I could put my iPod in book mode and catch up on some reading while pretending to engage in the class. Sitting in the back of the class, I had hopes that I would be left alone and wouldn't have anyone sitting next to me so I could read. But the class did fill up and there was only one seat left...next to me. In walked the man that would be my partner in personal safety for the morning. He was over a foot taller than me, and had the forearms of the old cartoon character, Pop-Eye the Sailor Man. We greeted each other just as class began and the instructor told everyone to put cell phones and pagers on silent and ,yes, ditch the iPods.
The instructors were two nurses who had put together more of a sit-com than a training. Laverne and Shirley had nothing on them.They tag-teamed the instruction and made the time go a little quicker than the usual 3 hour meeting. And by mid-morning, it was time to put into action personal safety. It was a demonstration of how to get out of unsafe situations that may arise in the healthcare profession. They were the usual situations a nurse can face, like a choke hold, having your hair grabbed from the front and then the back, and the infamous two-hand grab. A piece of cake....except for the fact that I had the young 7 foot high Pop-Eye coming at 5 foot middle-aged me. I managed to get out of all the holds he threw at me. Having grown up with two older brothers and raising four kids into adulthood, I had many "moves" to draw from in keeping Pop-Eye at bay. All in all, the morning turned out to be.....well... fun.... compared to my preconceived thoughts upon rising this morning.
Each morning upon rising, let me put aside my thoughts on how I am expecting the day to go. Let me look past how much I need to get done, or how I can avoid what the day is bringing to me. Let me learn to be grateful that I have awakened to greet another day. Allow me to wake up and look to my Creator to put me in the right frame of mind before my feet even hit the floor. Let me awaken and look for those Kung-Fu moments that will bring a smile to my face.
I woke up this morning already grumbling to myself that this meeting was not what I wanted to be doing for the next 3 hours. I had the preconceived notion that for 3 hours I would be sitting and listening to some corporate person drone on about how to stay safe out in the homecare environment. A place where few corporate people have dared to travel.
When I got there, I found a back seat, in hopes I could put my iPod in book mode and catch up on some reading while pretending to engage in the class. Sitting in the back of the class, I had hopes that I would be left alone and wouldn't have anyone sitting next to me so I could read. But the class did fill up and there was only one seat left...next to me. In walked the man that would be my partner in personal safety for the morning. He was over a foot taller than me, and had the forearms of the old cartoon character, Pop-Eye the Sailor Man. We greeted each other just as class began and the instructor told everyone to put cell phones and pagers on silent and ,yes, ditch the iPods.
The instructors were two nurses who had put together more of a sit-com than a training. Laverne and Shirley had nothing on them.They tag-teamed the instruction and made the time go a little quicker than the usual 3 hour meeting. And by mid-morning, it was time to put into action personal safety. It was a demonstration of how to get out of unsafe situations that may arise in the healthcare profession. They were the usual situations a nurse can face, like a choke hold, having your hair grabbed from the front and then the back, and the infamous two-hand grab. A piece of cake....except for the fact that I had the young 7 foot high Pop-Eye coming at 5 foot middle-aged me. I managed to get out of all the holds he threw at me. Having grown up with two older brothers and raising four kids into adulthood, I had many "moves" to draw from in keeping Pop-Eye at bay. All in all, the morning turned out to be.....well... fun.... compared to my preconceived thoughts upon rising this morning.
Each morning upon rising, let me put aside my thoughts on how I am expecting the day to go. Let me look past how much I need to get done, or how I can avoid what the day is bringing to me. Let me learn to be grateful that I have awakened to greet another day. Allow me to wake up and look to my Creator to put me in the right frame of mind before my feet even hit the floor. Let me awaken and look for those Kung-Fu moments that will bring a smile to my face.
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