The Reveal

My husband has been collecting eclectic items for years. He has magazines, foreign money, lunch boxes, toys....and list goes on and on. He buys them and hides them away in a closet. After years of talking about displaying them, he finally bought a display cabinet. We put it together yesterday. It is a massive cabinet, the kind you see in a jewelry store. After we put it together, the collection came out of the closet. There were things that he had not seen in years. There were things that he did not remember buying. He is slowly arranging them in the case and it will take time to do it right as each mini collection needs to be together to tell its "story". When I woke up this morning and went into my den, I felt as if I walked into a store.

At Rest

One of the directors of the medical practice I work for passed away last night. Dr. Y had been sick for years, but it is still sad to know that he is gone. When I started to work there twelve years ago, he had the first of many strokes. He had a very colorful life. When he married his wife, Dr. N, she was 23 and he was 42. He was divorced with five children. They never had children together. Their medical practice was their child. Because of them, drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox and many others are on the market. They did the drug trials because they so strongly believed that people with mental illness needed better medications. At first they treated with combinations of vitamins and amino acids until the drug companies agreed to test these now popular medications. They brought the concept of intensive mental healthcare treatment to the forefront. They fought to make people realize that some mental healthcare issues were biologically based and need to be treated in parity with other medical conditions. They wrote more books than I can list. Some of these books are translated into many languages. They were on many television shows and helped to bring awareness to OCD. He was a brilliant man who made people laugh. After a few strokes, he reverted back to speaking only Spanish. Later on, he did not even recognize his wife. She cared for him in the most loving way even though he no longer knew who she was. Her devotion was heartwarming. She will be lost without him.

Loose Ends

I love it when all of my loose ends are tied up. I got up this morning and had nothing to do. My bills are all paid. My laundry is done. My house is clean. My holiday greeting cards are signed and stamped. I am even packed for next week's trip to Florida. I hate doing things at the last second and it pays off. No loose ends equal a clear mind.

The Gate Keeper

When things need to get done, you need to see the gate keeper. Every office, business or school has one. It is the person that has the ear of the owner or director. They have the most power. They have the most knowledge. If something is not getting done for you and the gate keeper says to move things along, they fly. If the gate keeper dislikes you, run for the hills. In a doctor's office the receptionist is the gate keeper. In a school it is the school secretary. In a family business, it is the wife. Know who the gate keeper is and treat them well. They are the ones that open the gate.

Hats

About ten years ago my son bought a bunch of hats on a closeout. They were brand name hats and usually sold for $20 each. The store was selling them for $1.20. He bought them all out. He then tried to sell them on eBay for the retail price. They sold as fast as he listed them. One was sold to someone in Hawaii. He must have forgotten about five of them and a few days ago I found them hidden away in a closet. I decided to list them on eBay for the same $20 as he did. They still have the tags on them. I listed them and within one day, two have sold. I guess that these hats are still in demand, ten years later.

Function and Dysfunction

Do we live in a normally functioning world or has dysfunction become the new norm? When dysfunction takes over normalcy, normalcy seems strange.  Wrong is right. Right is lost. Bad ideas seem great and solid ideas are pushed to the side. I see this more and more lately. Some people live in dysfunction for so long that to change it feels odd. It is like Stockholm syndrome, where you affiliate yourself with your captor. In this case dysfunction is your captor.

God's Schedule

Today my boss will be returning to work after being off for a month. She was not on vacation. She was on a vigil. She has spent the last month at her husband's bedside waiting for him to die. She is 18 years younger than him and has been caring for him for the past ten years, since he had the first of many strokes. He was holding his own until a new home healthcare aid made a mistake with his feeding tube. After that, my boss decided to never leave his side. The doctors said he would die within a few hours or few days. That was in January. She called in his children from out of state. She set up a memorial and had people write eulogies. As each day passed, he remained the same. The doctors said to shut off his pacemaker. He is still living. They took away his intravenous line. He still lived. At this point, no one knows when he will pass. It is up to God.