A Spooky Surprise

We stopped at the impressive Halloween display. An incredible fantasy land of inflatables. Clearly a family that loves the holiday and wants to make it special for others.

“Let’s get out of the car,” my daughter pleaded. “I bet we can see more that way.”

So, we became the intrusive sort of Halloween gazers, now peering through the front gates to get a better look at all that was inside. Skeletons, Dragons, Eyeballs, Ghosts and Ghouls.

My daughter asked, “What’s that noise?”

I listened and heard a beeping sound. I stepped back, thinking we had triggered an alarm system. 

Were we going to have an angry confrontation, being accused of trespassing?

Moments later, the gate began to open. Should we run?

Joel and Daniel, the homeowners came out to greet us.

“Come on into the yard and look around. And thank you for visiting.”

The proceeded to give us a tour of an incredible display of inflatables. My pictures here don’t do it justice.

But it wasn’t the inflatables that inspired this piece. It was the warmth with which this wonderful couple welcomed us, rewarding our “friendly trespassing” with a private tour of their ghostly landscape.

On the ride home, my simple words to my daughter:

“There are indeed many good people in this world.”

Thank you Joel and Daniel for the reminder.

Move On...Stay Fresh

 

“The main thing is to finish it and move on to the next one…to keep your mind fresh.”

 Jeremy Storter, Graphic Artist

 

This Tuesday, we held an event on campus called All Things Art. Originally, it was an effort of our College of Pharmacy (COP) to celebrate the creative side of the staff, faculty and students. We don’t have enough space to do this in the health professions, despite a common understanding that art and creativity are vital to health.

Well, some of us saw the COP event and wanted in. We begged for it to expand to include all of the UNM Health Sciences Campus. And thus, All Things Art has become an annual tradition. It is a grassroots effort with no committees (whaaaat???? Is that possible????). 

All Things Art is a pop up show that goes up and then comes down a few hours later.

No longer confined by our student/staff/faculty titles, we become creatives. 

We become painters, photographers, poets, musicians, fly fishing tie makers, weavers, baked goods creators, jewelry and clothing makers. We become human beings showing our creative side.

This year, we added a film festival to the event, and it was a wonderful addition. Allan Stone, a film-maker on our campus, made that part happen.

And that’s where I heard the quote above, in a short film Pulse: The Beat of Art.

“The main thing is to finish it and move on to the next one…to keep your mind fresh.”

Jeremy is talking about how he looks at an art piece he has created, seeing what he did well and seeing what mistakes he made.

He warns us about being trapped in what we have created, paralyzed in the analysis of that thing.

The goal is to move on.

How much do we struggle to remain “fresh” because we are stuck on the last thing – a patient visit, a test, an academic paper, a conversation with a loved one – wishing that we could get a chance to do it again?

Your turn:

Think, for a moment. 

What is a creation of yours that needs to be stamped “finished” so that you can move on.

Stamp it!

Done!

Comma replaced with period.

Move on.

Stay fresh!

Running Thru Clouds

The wisp ahead on the trail invited me to quicken the pace as I ran my morning run on Tuesday.

“A cloud?” I wondered.

Followed by, “I must still be half-asleep, dreaming this up.”

Running thru clouds is doesn’t happen often, especially in sunny-sky Albuquerque.

I got closer.

Now in the cloud.

Giving thanks.

Twirling and dancing like the child I am.

But, in the cloud, you don’t see the cloud.

In fact, I had to stop a few strides down the trail to look back and see if there was indeed a cloud.

There it was.

 

When in a cloud today:

Give thanks

    Become a child in wonder and delight

        Trust that it is there even if the eyes tell you otherwise

             Thank those who are your cloud

                     Become a cloud for others

Youth Leading the Way

Seattle, WA - At the annual meeting of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) this past week, there were presentations on a variety of topics affecting Indigenous communities.

A few of these sessions touched on youth issues.

But one session was actually led by youth leaders, all of whom are in high school. “Youth Leading the Way to Healthier Indigenous Communities” was presented by Tiana Chino (San Felipe and Acoma Pueblos), Sunny Louis (Acoma Pueblo) and Nizhoni Fleg (Dine’).

 

The session opened with a game that allowed participants to become more familiar with one another, while having fun. “I thought this was an important way to bring us together, building trust amongst those in the room,” said Nizhoni, who led this part of the session.

The youth then shared about their experiences as leaders. Tiana Chino spear-headed a blood drive at Bernalillo High School, organizing the various elements and working with her school’s administration to make it all happen. Sunny Louis created the Auntie Moon project that promotes menstrual equity and educates on bleeding disorders. Nizhoni Fleg shared on her policy work that led to her and other Indigenous youth presenting their ideas to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deborah Haaland and U.S Congressmen Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich.

The session ended with Sunny leading a "web" exercise, asking each adult in the room to share one thing they will do to create more space for youth to lead in their respective programs and communities. One Tribal Leader, for example, shared that they would go back and revisit their Tribe's Youth Council to make sure the youth got to share directly with Tribal Council, as there is not currently a mechanism to do so. Others who are leading youth mentoring programs had "aha" moments from the session, admitting that youth had never been consulted as to the content of their programs. They vowed to change that.

Sunny reflected on her experience: “Attending AAIP was a highly motivating experience for me. I had the opportunity to connect with others, learn new things, gain resources, and find inspiration. Being surrounded by Native physicians and witnessing the impactful work they do for and within Tribal communities filled me with joy and encouraged me to pursue a career in medicine. My most impactful experience was connecting with young Pueblo women aspiring to become medical doctors and conducting pioneering clinical research.  It hits you different when you can connect with people from your own communities doing things you’ve always dreamed of doing.”

Multiple participants in the session commented that it was the best one in the entire conference. 

Having been in the room, I agree wholeheartedly.

When we, as adults, are able to step back, youth step up and do amazing things. When we find ourselves complaining about youth, it is most likely an issue of adults not creating the space for them to lead, as opposed to it being an issue with the youth themselves.

Sunny, Tiana, and Nizhoni - thank you for leading the way. We are proud of you!

 

Transition

This is a moment of transition.

Stop for a moment and see if you can feel it.

Fall has begun, and with it, the first wafts of cool air. The mornings now darker, while sun sets in the evening much earlier.

The fall equinox is a moment where night and dark come into balance, twelve hours of each. Globally, this is a moment where northern and southern hemispheres receive the same amount of light.

Shana Tova (Happy New Year) to those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a transition to a new year in the Jewish calendar.

And now, good people, a chance to look inward to our own points of transition.

Yesterday and all of the yesterdays it represents, now a thing of the past. 

All of it serves as the kindling for the fire that we will light today, as we transition to tomorrow and all of the tomorrows it represents.

Those twigs of yesterday provide fuel for the fire. And some things just need to burn, so that we can move forward.

Through the smoke, two questions waft into our vision.

How do you want to be?

Who do you want to be?

These are the simple and quite profound questions that ground all transitions. The caterpillar surely feels the gravity of these questions as they transition to butterfly. The tadpole similarly confronts them as they think of the frog they are meant to be.

And yet, we often skip the How and Who aspects of transition, distracted by the What. As in “What is on my plate for the rest of this week?” and “What is my to-do list for the rest of the month?”

My hope is that we make time and space for the How and Who questions, allowing them to ground and inform the What aspect of our metamorphosis into tomorrow’s version of ourselves.

Take time to write/reflect/draw/pray/move today as you consider How and Who you want to be.

In doing so, you are already transitioning.

It's Okay to Rest

“It’s okay to rest.”

The quote came my way through an unexpected messenger. It was a cup of flavored tea that a co-worker was drinking, and this was the quote hand-written on the side of the cup.

Being one who needs that message, I paused.

Questions started to bubble to the surface:

Is it okay to rest?

What would rest look like for me?

What would it feel like?

How would I benefit from rest?

What ways can I work toward rest today, this week?

 

What questions arise for you when hearing the simple words: It’s okay to rest?

Write them down.

The questions themselves are telling you the answers. But do work on answers for each of the questions.

And find time and space to share those questions and answers with someone close to you today.

My hope is that this upcoming 3-day weekend will give us opportunity to rest. Or more correctly, that we will take and make the opportunity to rest over the weekend. And next week. And the following week.

The Miracle of a Teaspoon of Honey

Imagine for a moment…

A teaspoon of honey

Take a good look at the glistening gold

And now, the anticipation as you bring it to your mouth.

It touches taste buds, setting off something magical in the neurons a few inches above.

Feel, for a moment, the pleasure of that honey as it overwhelms your senses.

Bask in it.

Enjoy the moment.

(If in a meeting as you read this, try not to smile too big, or others may become suspicious and accuse you of not paying attention, or worse yet, may accuse you of having fun while on the clock.)

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having just harvested honey from our honeybee hive, taking from these wonderful creatures their most amazing creation, I am inspired to share.

In that one teaspoon we just imagined…

It took 12 honeybee girls their entire 40-day lifetimes to produce that honey.

12 of Creator’s creatures spent their lives making that one teaspoon come to be.

And in their 12 lifetimes, they visited a total of 31,000 flowers and flew 1,000 miles to harvest the nectar.

One each foraging trip, they visit 50-100 flowers, storing the nectar in their honey stomachs where digestive enzymes break down complex sugars into simple sugars (glucose, fructose).

The nectar was carefully transported to the hive, regurgitated to other bees who add enzymes and place it in the hexagon combs in the hive.

Nectar comes in as 80% water, and was then dehydrated through fanning from the bees’ wings over a course of days until it is 15-18% water. Finally, they cover it with beeswax, also made from nectar, preserving it for the months ahead. If they make a mistake and make honey that is 21% water, it will ferment. (Capped honey thousands of years old has been found, and once uncapped, the honey is still good!)

Our bees are now in the mode of preparing for winter, as the nectar flow usually ends at the end of July in New Mexico. They will now survive on their stored honey through mid-April when nectar starts flowing again.

May this reflection on life and nature, via these wonderful creatures, sit with you and enhance your day’s journey.

May it make the taste of honey that much sweeter.

May it give us pause when we see a bee today visiting a flower.

May gratitude and awe overwhelm us when the next teaspoon of honey finds its way to our mouth.