Your Momma wore army boots.....once.

That's me in the middle.

Officer Basic Traning, Summer '74, San Antonio

     I thought of these pictures after posting yesterday's Memorial Day blog.  This all happened a lifetime ago.
     My college education was paid for by a military scholarship, for which I am very thankful.  After 2 years of college at the Univ. of Nebraska in Lincoln,  I received my nursing education at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing....I was a WRAIN-drop.  It was a campus of the University of Maryland, so my BSN is from the U. of Maryland and I am a Maryland Terrapin, as is my husband.  The nursing instructors and educational theory really were first rate.  The clinical could have been more intensive, but you do pick that up on the job.
     I then worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) for 3 years:  18 month on a renal medical and transplant ward, and another 18 months on a Gastroenterology ward.  I was discharged in '77 at the rank of Captain.  Like I said, this was a lifetime ago. 
     Ironically, one of the first songs I remember is one my Dad used to sing:

The biscuits in the army, they say are mighty fine,
One rolled off the table, and killed a pal of mine.

They say that in the army, the coffee's mighty fine,
It looks like muddy water, and tastes like turpentine.

(refrain)
Gee, Mom, I wanna go, but they won't let me go,
Gee, Mom, I wanna go home.                              

A Memorial Day Thank You

Thank you Dad.

     Thank you to all the veterans, soldiers, and their families for doing their unenviable jobs.  All  Americans appreciate you.
     I believe war is always the wrong choice....the last choice.  There are better ways to achieve peace than by killing.  Countries go to war for power and control, not for peace.  Unless you are waging a last-ditch defense of your own soil and people, there are no reasons good enough to declare war.  There are no winners in war.
     That being said, I appreciate everyone who is out there protecting our country and defending its citizens every day.  It takes much courage to do your jobs and I honor that.  John Wayne said that "courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyway."  Thank you for saddling up and keeping us safe.
     I was an Army Nurse at Walter Reed Hospital from 1974-1977.  I was fortunate that the Viet Nam War ended by the time I graduated from nursing school.  Most of the patients there were soldiers returning from Viet Nam, and they were so young!  Remember that I was only in my early twenties at the time, and I was still struck by their extreme youth.  They were 18, 19, and 20 year-olds back from war and forever changed.
     Peace.
 
"In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below."
                            John McCrae

    

  

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver

     Congratulations to our nephew Michael on his high school graduation yesterday.  He is ready to go out and change the world, and I have no doubt that he will do so. 

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who are alive."    Howard Thurman

"We all travel the milky way together...." Muir

     Still doing spring gardening....dividing some perennials to fill in the empty places.  Our magnificent wildlife visitors do make it difficult, or maybe I am rationalizing away my lack of a green thumb.

"I have a rock garden.  Last week three of them died."    Richard Diran

"The earth laughs in flowers." Ralph Waldo Emerson

     Gardening/yardwork season is here.  Winter is always tough for perennials, as well as people, in Colorado.  However, some flowers are up and starting to bloom.  I was surprised by the dainty blue flowers of brunnera and some iris blooms.  I harvested some rhubarb for the very first time ever...delicious.
     The weekend weather was sun-filled and I started the round of pruning, fertilizing, weeding, planning, planting, and dividing.  Got sunburned, as well.  It is hard to find plants the deer and rabbits won't devour, so my palette is somewhat limited by their palate, but Dean and I enjoy making the effort.  It is always an experiment.  As the saying goes, "a garden is never so good as it will be next year." (Thomas Cooper).
     I have heard a few hummingbirds buzzing overhead so will put out their feeder this week. The other seed feeders are already out and the House Finches are back.
     Have relapsed somewhat on the jogging/working out plans.  Still eating healthy vegan, but too much.  Have been walking the dogs and now gardening in lieu of the workouts.  Hopefully, I will get back to the exercise, but gardening is so much more fun. 

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."    Iris Murdoch

                                    My brunnera Jack Frost peeking out from a shady corner.

                                        Iris, Royal Sparks, one of my favorites.

The Circle of Life

     This morning was a time for me to complete written correspondence....two notes of congratulations on high school graduations, and one of sympathy on the sudden death of a loved one, always so difficult to write.  The irony was especially striking when going from one to the other.  New beginnings vs. endings.  Life taking flight for some and a journey's completion for someone else.  Loved ones being left behind in either case. 

"No straight lines make up my life;
And all my roads have bends;
There's no clear-cut beginnings;
And so far no dead-ends."
                          Harry Chapin, All My Life's a Circle

"Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened."    Dr. Seuss

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." Bertrand Russell

     Yesterday we got the shiny new Corvette which our kids rented for Dean for 24 hours for his 60th birthday.  He loved it, and really hated to return it today.  We drove it to Estes Park on curvy mountain back roads, and spent the night at the historic Stanley Hotel, of Stephen King "The Shining" fame.  It was a great get-away.  Thank you so much to our kids for this wonderful gift.  It also was a celebration of Dean's completion of chemotherapy.