Nurse Audrey’s Stress Relief Blog

Am I entitled in this life to be happy all the time?
Am I entitled to have others treat me kindly?
Am I entitled to meet and live with my “soul mate”?
The answer is an unequivocal, No!

Yes, there are times when we may feel this way, but if we look at life through the eyes of entitlement, we will be disappointed. There will always be an inward battle between what we think we deserve and what life doles out to us.

In the end it comes down to anticipation vs expectation.
How disappointing life can be if we expect to be treated fairly and kindly all the time. Yes, we can anticipate that relationships and life in general will go our way, but can we always expect it?

This is the blueprint that we need to take through life and to instill into our children’s lives as well. It is never more important to do this than at this time of year, when their eyes light up with anticipation of receiving the many gifts on their list.

A final thought:
If we want to live in the sunshine all the time, we must live in the desert. Yes, it is the wind and the rain in life that help us develop into the kind of people who can touch others and ultimately find fulfillment in life.     

I am going to let the Blog have a rest over the holidays and will meet with you again early in 2008.
May you have a restful season and I look forward to connecting with you in the New Year!

Until next time, this is Nurse Audrey signing off.

A friend recently told me of an incident that he observed in a fast food restaurant a few weeks ago. It was a cold day and the line-up inside for service was long. As some were eating at the booths and others were coming and going, a rather scruffy, somewhat unclean man, who was probably homeless, entered the building.

In a rather inappropriate way he began to bother the customers in line, and then proceeded to grab the food of a customer who was already eating. All eyes were on him. “How dare he come and disturb our day, try to take our food and generally make a nuisance of himself. Who does he think he is?”

I asked my friend if he did anything about this situation. He said no he did not as he himself was surprised and disturbed by this man’s offensive behavior just as were the other customers.

What would I have done – what would you have done in this situation? What should we have done? Let’s look at this man from a different perspective. What is it like to live on the street—no warm bed, no caring family, no one to go home to? What is it like to be hungry and smell food while looking for shelter, and then enter a restaurant and see well-dressed people buying and eating at booths?

What went wrong with this man? Was he abused as a child? Was he led astray by his own choosing? Why is he homeless now? I believe many of those who appear outwardly “successful” may only be a few house payments away from being homeless themselves.

What would have happened if someone had approached him and said: “Hello, my name is …, I will buy you a meal. What would you like to eat? Please sit down and I will bring it to you”?

Do you suppose that such a small act of kindness would have touched his heart? It may have been a long time since this man had received a touch of kindness such as this. I don’t believe that we should reward bad behavior by giving in to unreasonable demands, but we could sit down with this fellow, and while he’s eating explain that by being respectful to others, we would receive from them a more favorable response to our own needs. People are more willing to help the needy if they are not rude and aggressive. This could be a valuable teaching lesson on how to develop some needed social graces. 

Yes, there are opportunities every day to look past another’s behavior and discover deep within the heart some repressed goodness. 

I encourage you at this Christmas Season to look for opportunities to reach out to those less fortunate in a non-judgmental way, and see what positive changes you will experience yourself and what impact this will have on others as well.

Your comments are welcome.
See you next time,
Nurse Audrey