Cherished moments

As I read back over previous blog entries, I realized how lucky I am.  Our life hasn't been easy - and that is probably the understatement of the century.  But along the journey, things happened!  Life happened! And moments came and went that I will cherish forever.  There are so many it was hard to choose which ones to include.  But I have to start somewhere, so here goes.

1.  I was grown with a family when my daddy was taken by ambulance to a Wichita, Kansas hospital for open heart surgery.  Wichita was about 120 miles from their home, and same distance from our home.  Hubby and I went to the hospital for the surgery, and sat with mom for hours and hours while dad had surgery.  Sometime during that tedious long day, my brother and sister arrived from Tacoma, WA and continued the vigil with us.  When daddy was finally in ICU, the nurses said we could go in one at a time.  When it was my sister's turn, she sang for daddy.  Her beautiful voice floated out over that ICU - brought nurses to tears listening to her sing.  She sang his favorite hymn and even after all these years - still gives me goose bumps when I think back to that song.  Daddy said later that he heard her - even tho he wasn't completely awake from the surgery.  Cherished memory.

2.  The next memory I chose was when they put my newborn daughter in my arms, and then 18 months later, put my newborn son in my arms.  The magic of birth, the miracle of life, and the overwhelming feeling of love that just swamped my emotions.  Seeing their daddy with tears of joy in his eyes is something I will never, ever forget.

3.  My cherished moments are all over the place!  My next cherished moment is walking into my Grandma Noe's kitchen, and smelling the fresh bread, just out of the oven.  I'm sure all of us kids were looking at that bread and drooling.  My precious little grandma would just give a belly laugh, and then get out the butter and feed us hot bread right out of the oven.  My mouth is salivating as I type!  :)

4.  The next cherished moment came when I realized that I loved my boyfriend - now husband -  44 years ago.  He was bringing me back from my home to college in Alva, OK.  I remember the exact spot - going up a hill in Kansas with pastures all around us, music in the car, and me sitting on the arm rest with my then boyfriend's arm around me.  It honestly hit me pretty much like you see in the movies - like somebody smacked me on the head and my heart filled to the brim.  I even started giggling and he wanted to know why.  I told him later that evening that I loved him, and we got married 6 months later.

5.  This is a very weird, cherished moment, but special anyway.  My granddaughter, DJ, had a liver transplant when she was 17 1/2 years old.  Her Godmother donated part of her liver so DJ could live.  Her Godmother was in another hospital, and we waited and waited and waited to hear about her surgery.  Doctors couldn't even open DJ up until they knew the new liver was viable and at our hospital.  I will never forget the joy that flooded my heart when the nurse came running out to the waiting room and with great joy said, "The liver is in the building!"  Wow. 

6.  The last moment for this particular entry in my blog was in 1997.  I returned to school at age 42 to get my teaching degree.  It was really hard, learning how to study all over again.  Had one year of college at 18 and got married so I hadn't studied for years!.  Lots of homework, incredible long hours, typing until I felt my fingers were going to bleed, having a foster child come to us in the middle of finals.   Student teaching with a wonderful lady who became my lifelong friend.  When I walked across the stage to get my diploma, I honestly felt like I could float across the stage and yet I felt like I couldn't breathe!  The president of the college grinned and said as he gave me my diploma, "Been a long time coming, huh?"  I laughed outloud and said, "Yes!"  Hearing my family scream and cheer in the audience was amazing.  I did it - I was a college grad, soon to be a teacher. 

I can guarantee there are way more cherished moments.  I expect I will write about more someday. 

Memories and cherished moments are what keep us going.  We look to the future, but the past is what keeps us grounded.  Live in the present, prepare for the future, and always remember the past.  Life is a huge series of precious moments!

Change someone's life!

How many of you reading this have influenced someone in your life - and then found out about it later?  I expect lots and lots of us have influenced lives and we never have a clue!

For some reason, that is where my busy mind has wandered lately.  I have one of those minds that NEVER shut up.  I wish sometimes I could just flip a switch and it would shut down.  But guess that is the way I was wired so I deal with it.  But I have gotten off the subject.  As my mind wandered, I started remembering ways that I have influenced people around me without any intention whatsoever or in ways that people have influenced me - and probably none of them knew it.

Today, I was thinking about a young man - probably in his early 20's - that told me I had saved his life.  I had no idea nor intention of doing any such thing - I was doing an assignment for school.  I went back to college to get my teaching degree at the ripe old age of 42.  The university I went to was fairly small so I spent two summers picking up courses I couldn't get any other way.  One course was a 140 mile round trip commute to another small city to get my course on Teaching Exceptional Children.  Our assignment was to come up with a lesson on some facet of special needs/gifted/exceptional children.  I chose ADHD.  Probably because I have ADHD but have learned how to cope with it as an adult.  

I taught my lesson with the help of a couple of my classmates.  I taught the lesson and told my class I was giving them a test.  I enlisted two classmates to shuffle their feet, cough, open cough drop boxes, rattle paper, tap feet while the test was being taken.  In addition, the floor was wood, and I had on sandals that really made noise walking on that floor.  I started the test, and my cohorts went into action.  I walked up and down the aisles pretending to check on their progress, making sure I clacked my sandals a lot. They coughed, rattled their cough drop boxes, shuffled their feet, etc.   When I finished, I told the class that the test was just a ruse.  I asked them how many of them were bothered by the noise in the classroom.  Almost everyone looked at me like I was nuts - and said, "What noise?"

Except for the young man I mentioned earlier.  He raised his hand and said we about drove him crazy.  He was ready to jump out of his seat.  I finished by explaining that is what people with ADHD experience - noise bothers them, they are fidgeting, can't settle down, mind is always racing.  My teacher then took over and we all listened as this poor young man told us he hadn't slept in months, could not focus on anything, couldn't keep a job, etc.  Absolute classic case!  Our teacher counseled with him, told him to get himself to a doctor immediately, and then we dismissed class.

A couple weeks later, in class, the young man thanked me.  Said I saved his life.  He had listened to the teacher, gone to the doctor, got meds, and slept for the first time in months.  He was able to study, to do things he never could before - it was as if that kid had been born all over.

I did not start out to change his life.  I'm glad though, that I did because it made me keenly aware of students in my class who have had ADHD. I was able to give them coping skills to combat ADHD.  Some had meds, some did not.  I learned that caffeine helps those ADHD students a LOT!  I gave one student a mini Coke every day after lunch (with permission of all involved), and he was able to maintain the rest of the afternoon.  Before that, he was unable to do maintain and focus when  his Tourettes and his ADHD kicked in. He was very unhappy and lost.  I was able to help him - all because I taught a lesson that I was assigned in college. I learned a lot from that lesson and have used it consistently during my teaching career.

I've had students write letters to me, and parents write letters to me about how I helped and influenced their child.  In those instances, I did try to influence them - I used every trick I knew to help them become successful.  I treasure all those letters.  I treasure the times I meet former students around town, and they introduce me as the "best Teacher ever".  

You never, ever know who you will come in contact with that might be influenced by what you say or what you do.  It might just be the one thing that will save a life, will change a course of destruction for that person, will convince them to get help, or to change the way they think. 

Every person we meet in our life is a chance to influence them for the better.  Whether we consciously set out to influence them, or we just influence them because we have been kind and have stopped to listen - the end result is a better world for everybody - one person at a time.