Creative writing for freelance projects

Journal Entry

It has taken me 52 years to realize that to live in a dream you have to drive straight through the center of reality first. To realize a dream, one must first decide what his or her dream world would look like. For me, when I envisioned a dream world, I always envisioned a land that was eternally effortless and easy, required no work, stress or thought and maintained itself that way indefinitely and always. We humans dwell in the physical realm, where absolutely everything is a process. Naturally, there are actions and events that have the ability to hurl and then suspend us up and adjacent to the magickal realms. The first touch from a newborn baby, a spirited accomplishment, true love. Those things, among others, change us and bring us to a place of higher understanding, which in turn, is in part the way to realize a dream in the midst of what is real. To get to those things though, one must work hard. Life in the physical is not easy. It is the hard work that enables the dream. Once a person understands and accepts that to get to an authentic dream state, one must first live in reality, it becomes a bit easier. At that point, all that is left is to decide how much and how hard one must work to realize whatever particular dream is in the forefront of any given mind. At its base, the concept is quite simple. Live in reality, realize dream and do what must be done to get to said dream. The diversity of humankind is the collective thing that makes precisely everything in life and the cosmos difficult. It is wonderous, this life...and maddening.

Glimpse

A glimpse is a glance into a dream or the future.

Oh, it has been to long since I have adventured to The Land Between the Lines. How I have missed this magickal place! How I wish there was a place to play here that did not involve a computer. But, alas, I have resigned myself to the fact that this medium is an enduring (if unwanted) part of our lives. So, I cannot let it defeat me. Anyway...I must share a glimpse from long ago that has recently come true! Many years ago, when I was about 19, I had a sudden vision one day. It came out of the blue and I had no clue what it meant. In the vision, I was much older. I was bundled up tightly against the cold and I was walking across what seemed to be a college campus. I was holding my scarf about my face against the wind with one hand and holding onto a bookbag or a briefcase of some kind in the other. I was walking across what I envision now to be a commons associated with said campus. All about there was snow. At the end of my walk, I ended up in a lecture hall of some sort. I lay my breifcase down, and loosened my scarf and took a deep breath. Ready to teach, I guess I was! The odd part was that at the time, my life had absolutely no direction. I had no clue what I was doing in life. How odd is it that just recently, I have begun an adjunct teaching contract at my first alma mater! How odd still, as I was walking across campus one day recently, I had the oddest feeling of dejavu! I stopped in my tracks...looked about at the snow covered commons and laughed right out loud. Here you go screamed the Universe! Remember me?

The Glimmers

"A glimmer is a glance into the past or a memory."

Some of those memories are old ones. Now that you are gone from us in this physical world,

they are locked forever in the present time as well. We are imperfect souls, us humans. But, beautiful, messy and complicated in our own right. There are souls who are invariably perfect in their imperfections and you are surely one of these. There is no day that goes by that I do not think of you! Your infectious smile! Your wild laugh. Your thugged out beautfiful spirit. How I wish I could talk to you and see you again. But I am so thankful to know you and share what life I could with you. You are my brother, my friend. I miss you. I love you...Gerald McGary.

Reflections

Truths and Untruths

I was eighteen years old when I discovered that not everyone told the truth. How could I have ever had the thought that I'd had a tough childhood? What a wonder my childhood was! My yard was acres of rolling hills spotted with apple trees. My summer days were spent lounging under a lilac tree and looking onto a plentiful garden. I played on my swing set being chased around by beagle puppies. The ground beneath the tire swing was worn to dirt. At the back of the property stood one lone Buckeye tree that held dominion over a small watering hole. If I turned to my left, I could break into a clean run through strawberry patches and raspberry bushes and over continued rolling hills to literally end up at my beloved grandma Bessie's door. Anything a person said could be trusted and believed without failure. We were always warm in the winter and enjoyed cool breezes rustling the window curtains in the summer. We were sheltered and safe. I never knew a struggle until I became an adult. It was then when I learned that the world was a tough place armed with bountiful untruths and dishonest people. Not every person was kind. Not every situation was what it seemed. Not everyone was a truth teller. I fell into my own struggles and became one of those sinister untruths for a period of time. I did, however, even in the midst of these struggles, find good people along the way. Because of those folks, I was still able to visualize my home in the sleepy little town of my youth. Even at the most difficult moments, I didn't totally lose myself. Almost, but never completely. Part of who I am today has been instilled into me by this set of contradicting viewpoints. I'm thankful to have them both to fall back on. They provide a solid sense of perspective and perception that has always served me very well.

Excerpts from Book

The Mystery Files: Glimpses and Muses Along One Nurse's Journey

"The best place to start is at the beginning." Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz.

Who wakes up one morning and decides that they want to become a nurse? Furthermore, what kind of person dreams of this life path from the time they are a small child? Nursing is not a dream so much as it is a calling. Prospective nurses are pulled in a sense toward "caring vocations" by a desire to help people. The goals are to assist patients back to wellness and aid them in living a healthy lifestyle once they have recovered. Nurses as individuals vary widely. Many times, the routes they take to care for patients differ greatly. The common goals, however, knit and stitch caregivers together. These simple truths are prevalent among all nurses. These basic principles that all nurses hold close to their hearts are the building blocks which frame and support the nursing profession. A few straightforward ideas allow nurses of all walks of life to stand united in purpose. And, a united nursing profession is needed now more than ever before.

The Nurse's Corner

A Note on Writing

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." Oscar Wilde

Since my children have graduated and gone on into their own young adult existences, I have been wading through my new life. It has been quite the journey thus far. Authentic life contemplation is tough. It is even more difficult for me because I have never really contemplated life all that much over the time in which I have existed upon this earth. Time is the keeper of all things. It stands sentinel over everything. Suddenly, after having no time for myself for the bulk of my adult life, I now found myself swimming in time. Naturally, I began to reflect on the past, and wonder about the future. Trying to figure out a life path is maddening. It is probably why I never bothered with it the first time around. Coming out of high school, I was the proverbial fool. A leaf blowing in the wind. Now, I am supposed to be older and wiser. The last four years have embodied for me what is defined as the "search for the soul." I wonder if we ever find ourselves all the way. We are always changing. Change is the only constant after all.

Anyway, of late, I have been imploring the Universe to show me my path. I've always loved to write. I've always loved words. I had counted myself out as a novelist, because I feel like I am a word arranger more than I am a word generator. One day at work, though, a few nurses and I were taking a short break in the nurse's station, and one of them said to me: "You should write a book." The idea stuck with me, and in that moment, I found my path.

poems

The Hug in the Hallway

Battles are being waged and forged within these hallowed halls.

Some days it takes all the strength there is to fight in them at all.

Things are so very different now than they were before.

At times it's hard to recognize these halls we've long adored.

But reality sets in again when a patient arrives in pain.

The reminder that it's you who must make things right again.

How quickly must you think of it?

Do you know what you must do?

The outcome for the patient...good or bad...all depends on you.

Once a long long time ago, a mentor asked in truth,

you must decide here and now, is nursing who you are or what you do?

"Know this", she said, "that just a job won't sustain you through and through,

the long hours, the hard days, the ideas corporations have for you."

What will provide you strength in the moment,

is the imploring look in a patient's eyes,

the look you will come to know in them when their panic and fears arise.

What will provide you comfort and solace is the peace that is conveyed,

by realizing that you've done your part to relieve hurtful pain, dismay.

And when the exhausting day is done,

you collect your bloodstained clothes.

You don your winter coat in protection against the cold.

You sling your bag of "nursey" stuff over a weary shoulder,

summon the last bit of energy you've got to make it to the door.

And there at the hallways end is the patient's spouse.

She looks just the way you feel...all but tuckered out.

A silent look of understanding passes between you both.

She states simply and solidly without hesitation or boast:

"Thank you so much." she says to me, hugging me close and near.

"Thank you." she says once again.

"Just thanks for being here."

Technical Writing

An Introduction to an APA paper

Healthcare is changing rapidly, and nursing is changing right along with it. The problem with this statement is the fact that the healthcare system is also broken. Does that mean nursing is broken as well? The essence of nursing has always been to treat the patient as a whole being (Kreitzer, 2015). In reality, nursing has become fragmented and de-stabilized (Kreitzer, 2015). Nursing shortages have added more stress and strain on an already suffering system. Healthcare has become business, and the nursing profession is following suit. Nursing is not a business. The profession exists to support people. Holistic nursing provides a framework for whole person/system care that is relationship based and person centered (Kreitzer, 2015). It focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of caregivers as well as those they serve (Kreitzer, 2015). To properly care for human beings, the focal point must be people. Holistic nursing provides comprehensive care that achieves this goal.

Kreitzer, MJ. Integrative nursing: applications of principles across clinical settings. Rambam

Maimonides Medical Journal. 2015. April 29; 6(2): e0016. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ. 10200.

PMID: 25973268. PMCID: 4422455.

Museglimpser