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12 Dec 2004 @ 00:04, by Flemming Leer Jakobsen
I was looking for a lost login for a site, but stumbled across this one from the celestine-l mailinglist contributed by MichaelS back in 1998.
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WHAT DO I SEE?
What do you see, nurses what do you see?
Are you thinking when you are looking at me.
A crabbit old women, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes.
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice---"I do wish you'd try"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And for ever is losing a stocking or shoe,
Who unresisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill,
Is that what you are thinking, is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse, you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I use at your bidding, as I eat at your will,
I'm a small child of 10 with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another,
A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet,
A bride now at 20--my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep;
At 25 now I have young of my own,
Who need me to build a secure happy home;
A woman of 30 my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last,
At 40 my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn,
At 50, once more babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me,
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future I shudder with dread,
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel---
'Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool,
The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells,
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again,
I think of the years all too few-gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes nurse, open and see Not a crabbit old women,
look closer---see ME.
Written by an old lady in the geriatric ward in a hospital in Bath England.
After she died it was found among her possessions by a nurse
who was so impressed with it that she had it duplicated and circulated to other nurses in the hospital.
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Category: Inspiration
4 comments
12 Dec 2004 @ 00:49 by spiritseek : nice
I work at the VA hospital and sometimes I see the elderly slowly decline in health. I still talk to them as though they are young and spry because it always puts a twinkle in their eye. I don't mean to rhyme but it just worked out that way because its true.
17 Dec 2004 @ 14:16 by : The untouchables
After visiting several nursing homes and introducing safe, skillful and appropriate touch with the staff, it became obvious to me and to my team that our elders in social institutions are generally untouched. It seems to me to be a lack of respect for our elders' basic human rights and needs. We know that when children and others do not receive loving, healthy touch, they become irritable and often depressed. Many studies show that they just wither and die.
My team introduced a 6 week chair massage type program for those identified with Alzheimers and trained the staff to give the intervention as well. All of the reports by the staff were positive and we also observed that the residents who received the touch program were less agitated and required fewer restraints, including meds. In fact, the whole ward or environment took on a positive note.
I plan to do a followup to determine if touch is included in the programs. Because there are such huge turn overs of staff in these settings, I am not at all optimistic but am hopeful that these institutions will awaken to the use of touch as a viable approach to health and wellbeing.
See our website that describes our intervention at a Global Conference on Ageing. http://pages.zdnet.com/jerryvest/id8.html
29 Nov 2006 @ 06:57 by @219.133.230.97 : yes
yes,the nature is cruel, hope that the world is full of love.
19 Dec 2006 @ 02:12 by @61.141.157.76 : Good topic
back up this kind of issues
Other entries in Inspiration
21 Oct 2005 @ 19:01: declaration of blogocracy
4 Feb 2002 @ 02:32: Spiritual Endavours Into Light
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