Calamity Kate and Army Nursing

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Dear Family,

Yes, it's true. I've done a horrible job at keeping up my blog the past three months with all that has happened. Steve, Karie and Mom have all come out to visit (pictures to follow)! I graduated BOLC and have started on my unit! I met someone special :) I pay bills and live in an apartment... haha I feel so grown-up! Months are flying and each day is packed. It feels like years since August when I moved here.

So let's see, what's new? My first couple shifts revealed a learning curve roughly as steep as... the Matterhorn. ;) But I'm up to the challenge. It's a great and positive team of nurses, LVNs and Aids with a lot of support from leadership. The patients are sweet and kind and very very sick. Some were my age during the War; the character in their eyes puts me in awe as I check their pupils and ask them to use the call bell if they need to get out of the bed.

There is so much going on, so many opportunities for friendship and experience, so much that I want to analyze with nursing care and more fully understand, so many aspects of the army I don't know exist or don't comprehend, so much that I want to follow up on! The options and possibilities are simply exhausting and I find myself relaxing on my patio or couch or at my little table drinking coffee far too much. It's times like this I am taking sound advice from my loving and wise sister to savor the moment. After all I won't be 22, in the Army and in Texas forever, or will I? ;) muhaha

I miss you all dearly and I am looking forward to a Christmas entirely different and yet wholly the same. Here's to the simple things!