light

I hope your
new year is
full of light
and color
and Reiki

Speedy, Sniffly, and Sneezy

True friends check on you politely, laugh at your jokes and make you laugh too, and give you space when you need it.

A friend stopped in to my office today. She was having trouble making videos and needed help. She's been out of work for a few days with back pain. She knew I'd be in my office on a Saturday.

So she asked why the sound is all messed up. Too fast. I showed her how to check the speed setting. She backed away when she heard my sneezes and sniffles. I hab a code. She pulled her coat up over her mouth and nose. Just eyes showing. Kept asking questions.

I asked about her back. She said her back hurt so she walked funny so now her knee hurts. I asked if she has access to a pool. She said No. I suggested yoga. She said she tried it twice and threw up both times.

Barfy, Limpy, Speedy, Sniffly, and Sneezy. 

F6

If you accidentally turn off the touchpad and your laptop becomes a Brick there is a way to fix it. I know because I spent an hour with Brick and my backup notebook researching websites and pressing buttons. Brick or PaperWeight, you pick. It was useless. I tried to navigate with the arrows but kept getting stuck. In the end it was simple: Fn and F6. All those little buttons along the top actually do something.

PS: If you accidentally turn off your camera while you're trying to turn on your touchpad its Fn F8. Different on every keyboard, of course. Look at the little icons.

Reiki Nurse

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the calm one

A student asked me a question while I was proctoring a test. She asked me a question the next day when I met her in the hall, so I introduced myself.

"Oh, I know who you are," she said. "You're the calm one."

hot and cold

I was cold and hungry towards the end of the day. I'd gotten up at 5, was at work by 6, left early for an appointment and errands, and had a meeting at 7 pm, with an hour-long drive home afterwards. I stopped at a restaurant and waited a long time to be seated, though there were just two couples in a big empty room. I turned to leave, "Miss! A table?"

So I sat down. I waited again. I was chilled. The room was big and cold. I waited and thought about leaving again. There was another restaurant across the street.

A large man shuffled over. He was dressed all in black: T-shirt stained with food, pants with suspenders, and black socks and crocs.

"Water?" he asked.
"Yes, please. May I have hot water?"
"We don't have hot water."
"Do you have hot tea?"
"Yes."
"May I have hot tea without the tea?"
"I can't do that. It's not like we have big pots of hot water back there."
"Hmmm."
"I can bring you water without ice."

He brought me a tall glass of ice-cold water that I didn't drink. I thought about kitchens, pots, and the techniques required to heat water. I thought about birch bark containers sealed with sap, hot rocks, iron pots, hot springs, and acetylene torches.

Then I read my book. Dinner came and it was gross. Next time I'll listen to the absent diners.

Merry Christmas!

It's time to walk through pine forests, watch it snow, admire colored lights in trees, hug your friends, buy books, listen to carols, wrap carefully selected gifts, and sleep through long cold nights. Merry Christmas!

test questions for 2019

This week, preparing a January course, I viewed 5000 test items: stems and responses. I adjusted the points so that all 56 quizzes added up to 100 points.

When possible, I made everything gender-neutral. I tried to remove all culture and gender bias. I updated the language to reflect current philosophy, example: "the nurse collaborated with the physician", instead of "reported to". The girls are no longer shy. The 16-year old male drug addict is now a teen who used a recreational substance. Patients are people. Nurses don't "check", "notice", or "mention"; they "assess" and "instruct". Yes, 5000. Took me over 30 hours, which I did in about 4 days.

Now on to the next exciting task for Spring 2019: updating quizzes in a different class.

And some fun: instructional videos.

blue sky, blue water, white snow

a warm winter day
light-tipped waves on the lake, orbs
of light in the sky

another snow day

Snow days have their own rhythm, different from other days. I wake in the middle of the night and see the message flashing on my phone: snow day, no school. I go back to bed and sleep long.

When I wake, I don't shower and try to look gorgeous. Instead I put on snow pants, an old shirt, big boots, hat, and thick ski gloves. I push the door open, pushing against snow. I go out into a white world. The snow is heavy and deep. I grab the shovel and clear in front of the door. Then the steps. I see that my plow guy has been here already. The driveway is half cleared of snow; he plows all he can reach, and I scoop the rest. He plows my lawn and my neighbor's too, so I have a place to put the scooped snow. I scoop the deck and the driveway until I get tired and hungry. It's still snowing, so the deck is covered again when I go back inside. Hot coffee and an egg sandwich.

It will snow all day and I will go out and scoop every few hours. Inside I will write a paper, answer work emails, edit a new online course, and read. Outside: plow trucks go by, very few cars, neighbors run snow blowers and brush off their cars. The snow falls quietly, steadily.

snow day

We don't have wildfires,  rattlesnakes, earthquakes, hurricanes,or tsunamis. We do have humid summers, mosquitoes, poison ivy, and six months of winter. It's been raining for a month. Now it's cold. Snow is expected for tomorrow: eight inches of fluffy ice crystals.

We don't have endless tropical beaches or red rock canyons. We do have sandy beaches and pink granite. We have a month or two of summer and glorious falls. We have snow days: curl up with a good book, go outside in the storm every few hours to shovel, drink hot herbal tea, and relax. Go from jammies to snow pants and back. Get a good workout shoveling and scooping snow. Then rest. Repeat. It's a snow day.

Reiki Nurse

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kindness

maybe you didn't learn kindness as a child, that's ok, you can learn it now; start learning kindness today. Listen. Step back from yourself. Focus on the happiness of another person. Send out love.

Car

Sometimes life is like driving a car with no brakes.

Fiverr

Fun gig on Fiverr
I share distance Reiki with cool people from all over the world.
Click the link or search Reiki

Vote

Please vote. Please vote for love, health, and compassion.
Vote.

happy

It's ok to be happy

Fall

pine needles and leaves
scarlet and carnelian
carpets of color

Sending Reiki

Sending Reiki to Virginia this week and it is all joy, love, and enthusiasm.

Fall rain

I like the sound of rain on a tin roof, splashing down, seeking the sea

Reiki helps

Reiki helps me navigate, facilitate, communicate, stop, balance... and return to center. 

Reiki

After an attunement, some people are very sensitive to the energy. They feel it, but can't manage or understand it. They are experiencing profound shifts in their energy fields. It can be uncomfortable or frightening.

I tell my students to expect that. And to plan to rest and drink lots of water for a couple of days after an attunement. And lots of self-Reiki.

Reiki is powerful, the power of love.

Reiki class

Reiki class ended last week. Smart eager curious students. I love to teach Reiki.
We did attunements at the pond with birds and frogs.
We did attunements in a garden, with long views and pretty flowers.
We shared Reiki at an outpatient chemotherapy center.
Students made posters and wrote research papers.
More Reiki in our world. More light.
More love.

Reiju

Reiki class was fabulous! Wonderful enthusiastic students. Reiju beside the pond, with the blessings of turtles, frogs, crows, a heron, and laughing children.

Reiki class at the university

love this Reiki class I'm teaching at the university. The students have been researching, reading, and reflecting. Just read a bunch of insightful student posts. We meet this week for hands-on.

Church

I went to the annual service at my ancestor's church. Didn't stay for the whole service, and it wasn't the birds chirping in the chimney beside me, the religiosity, boredom, shyness, or the heat. No, I left early because the farm next door had spread manure and the stench was appalling. The stencils were gorgeous. Nice service.

My great5grandfather, a Revolutionary War soldier, is buried in the cemetery beside the church. 

teaching

Teaching a Reiki class at the university. The students are reading, reflecting, and writing. Their posts are so good. We meet next week for hands-on Reiki.

LINT

You could DIE in a FIRE, the guy on the radio said. LINT. You should clean your drier vent TWICE A YEAR, he said. Not the regular lint tray that you probably clean all the time, no, the big tin elephant trunk that goes from the back of the drier to outside. That thing. IT WILL BE PACKED WITH LINT, the guy on the radio said. Ok, wow, I've had the drier 8 years and never cleaned it. So I pulled out the drier, looked in the elephant trunk and I'm here to tell you DON'T DO IT. It's a trick. It was perfectly clean in there. No lint. Here's the trick, it's impossible to get it all back together. Does the elephant trunk go inside or outside the fluted pie plate piece? It doesn't fit, either way. And the clamp, where does that go? Well you know what? This is the exact situation that calls for duct tape. It was invented for this very purpose. Duct tape. It is whole again and I'm safe and lint-free.

AmethystHealth.com ~ Reiki Nurse

Reiki Nurse


https://www.amazon.com/REIKI-NURSE-Nurse-Changed-SECOND/dp/1601459041

4 am

I woke up at 4 am and noticed flashes of white light behind the curtains. Not the police then. Went out on the deck with my camera to see if I could get a photo of the lightning. I've never taken a photo of lightning. It was flashing every few seconds off to the east and the birds were singing enthusiastically. I recorded a bunch of short videos and got some lightning. Took a screenshot

AmethystHealth.com

Down and up 

My domain amethysthealth.com was down for a while, back up now. The domain directs one to this site.

Also down and up, my 8.5 mile bike ride last week. My son took me on a wild ride through Salt Lake City. We rode mostly downhill through three beautiful city parks, stopped for mango smoothies, and rode (and walked) back up. I tried both of his mountain bikes.

This week a friend who is moving gave me her mountain bike. What a nice ride. It's smooth and powerful. It's lighter than the bike I have, so easier to lift onto the car's bike rack. I rode a couple of miles along the river this morning. Lupines are blooming.

School's out

... for summer.

We had a going-away party for a teacher today. He and his wife are moving to California. They got great jobs and bought a lovely house.

We worked together for 10 years. We shared an office for the first few. When I asked him a question, he told me to figure it out. Sounds harsh, but it made me laugh, and helped me be as independent as I naturally am. His wife worked with us for a bit too. Both are wonderful amazing intelligent teachers and humans.

So today we had a party. We ordered $200 of food: fried rice, vegies, seafood, chicken, spring rolls, and crab rangoons. The seafood dish was loaded with shrimp, scallops, and lobster. Everyone said the chicken was great. Everything I ate was delicious. We gave him presents, suitable for packing up and driving across the country. Coffee cards, coffee mug, toilet paper, dog biscuits, and books on tape.

There were three of us in our department, together for 10 years. Now there will be two.

And two excellent friends are heading west. 

Reiki Nurse

Reiki Nurse