Day 52 - Numbers One and Two - A Very Special Blog

This morning as I got ready for work, the radio station played Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying." I'm not a huge Country fan, but I do like that song. It should remind each one of us that this life is short and we should try to get the most of it that we can. It was one year ago today that my father took his last breath. I miss him, but I also know that death is unavoidable. We all have to face it one day.
I got a little teary-eyed this morning when the sweet woman from hospice called me, as she did several times this past year, to check and see how I'm doing and if I needed to talk. Other than that, the anniversary of his death reminded me of how far I have come in the last year. One year ago, I was unemployed and had lost my father, trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces. Fast forward to January, when we lost my husband's father. In the meantime, I had taken a data entry J-O-B, just so we could keep our house, and some of the life-style that we had.
Fast forward again to a vacation in March where I got a massage - the massage that changed my whole career focus. I had been so broken and knotted up when I walked into that session, but came out feeling refreshed and like I could conquer anything. I realized then that I could do that. Help people. Not only was I just doing a J-O-B of data entry now, but had a vision of keeping that J-O-B until I finish the massage therapy program and become a Massage Therapist.
Sometimes couples that go through tough times like this past year ending up having trouble in their marriage. I'm glad to report that despite not being able to see each other a whole lot, I believe that WGH and I are as tight as ever. He knows how to keep me laughing, when to let me cry, and that sometimes I just need to become a vegetable on the sofa, eat chips and salsa, and watch Star Trek.
All that to say that it's partially because of my dad's death - and all that's happened in the last few years - why I'm in this program now. So what did happen tonight in class anyway?
We had our regular Anatomy instructor tonight! Yay!
Our focus in this session was the ending portion of the Digestive System (Number 2) and the Urinary System (Number 1). So I guess we got both waste systems tonight.
Did you know that when you're receiving a massage and your tummy rumbles, it doesn't mean that you're hungry? It just means that you're in a relaxed state and digestion is happening as it's supposed to.
We got into the the microscopic parts of the kidneys, what they are and what they do. We got to color pictures of it with our color pencils. There were red arteries, blue veins, and yellow....well, I'll just leave it at yellow and you can figure out the rest.
One very important thing I learned was that a bladder should not hold 700 to 800 mL of urine as it can cause infections and the inability to hold urine. Did you know that a bottle of wine is 750 mL? Can you imagine peeing out the equivalent of a bottle of wine????
During the lecture, there was one point that my shoulder was in such pain because of it being tight, I finally had to ask my classmate, Stuart, to work on my trapezius. As he worked on it and put pressure the area, he said that he could feel it release and when he finished up, I didn't feel the pain anymore. It felt loose - like muscles should be. Would he have been able to do that three months ago? Would I?
I'm glad that I'm in this program. It's hard coming home from work and driving 40 miles to get there four days a week, but the end results will be more than worth it. So for whatever tough times I've been through the last few years, I believe my future will have many possibilities and options, and I want to live my life knowing that life is short and I want to do what I can while I'm still on this earth.

Day 19 - First Aid For the Heart

We had our First Aid exam tonight. I got to the school a few minutes early, visited with some classmates, and about 10 minutes before going to take the exam, I checked crackbook...I mean facebook...on my phone. When I read a dear friend's status, it literally took my breath away. He shared that his beloved wife of many years had lost her battle to cancer about 10 minutes prior. It was not unexpected, but yet at the same time, when you hear that someone you have worshiped and served in church with for the last 11 years goes to their reward, and you realize you're left here in this imperfect world, it takes your breath away. At least it did with me.
But I didn't have time to think it about right then. I had a final exam in a few short minutes.
We had a few minutes to review before the exam, but I figured that if I didn't know it by then, I wasn't going to learn it in the next five minutes.
I started the exam and was done within a half hour, I'd say.
While waiting for everybody to finish, my classmates and I sat in the student break room and chatted. They made me smile and laugh and forget about things for a few minutes.
We reconvened in the classroom, discussed the exam, got our test scores (94%, thank you very much) and then took a break. After returning from the break, we moved to our bodywork room where we studied or practiced bodywork techniques for tomorrow night's exam. As always, the experience took away the stress of the day and allowed us to focus on right there, at that moment. A little First Aid for the heart.
Then, it was time to go home. A long drive of 40 minutes with me, the radio, and my thoughts to keep me company. The radio station I turned to played one of my favorite songs, Mountain of God, by Third Day, a song about how we must go through the valley to be able to stand upon the Mountain of God. I thought about my friend, Maralynn, with her welcoming party in heaven. A little later, the song "He Reigns" by the Newsboys came on, and I had a few tears - with the cruise control set at 70 mph. After that song, Jeremy Camp's song, "Give Me Jesus" came on, and I thought about when Jeremy Camp came on the music scene, he had just lost his wife to cancer.
I don't generally talk about my faith on this blog, because that's not the purpose of this blog. It's about the whole experience of taking the program to become a massage therapist. Tonight, I can't help but share - and it's been part of my experience at the school. My friend is in heaven without pain and no more tears. Isn't that where you would want to be?