Today Finally Came

This little girl received her first play doctor's kit when she was 4.

She loved that it resembled real doctor's so well. It was if she was just like them.

She loved to play with it and even wrote her name all over it so everyone knew it was hers.

She practiced on all her dolls, her little siblings, playmates, and even her parents.

She drew pictures of her working in the hospital and knew that there surely wasn't anything else that she'd rather become.

This little girl soon realized that when anyone asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up nothing else came out besides wanting to be a Nurse.

So in the 3rd grade when 'Career Day' came at school all she needed was to find the right clothes to pull off the nurse-look she so badly wanted.

Time flew by as all the milestones were achieved, then the day arrived where a decision was made to fully pursue the little girl's dream.

She had no idea what it would actually take to get there.

The number of sleepless nights she had.

The countless breakdowns and tears cried reconsidering the dream all together.

The phone calls home saying "I just don't know if I can do this anymore."

All those times she had to stay in while her friends went out and begged her to come too.

The uncertainty of ever being good enough to actually make it.

But...

she did it and the little girl inside of her always knew this day would come.

Megan Marie Stout, BSN, RN :)

Fireworks

Who doesn't love watching fireworks?

This time every year I always wonder to myself why we don't set off fireworks more than once a year.

But this annual celebration keeps their sacredness.

It reminds us of our freedom.

That glorious day when America escaped her bondage.

It's pretty great that centuries afterwards we still celebrate like they did.

Let's burst our souls and cry out our hearts for we are free!

That's probably what they were all thinking then.

And that's what the fireworks represent.

But I long to share our freedom. I want set off fireworks when a young girl is released from her bondage in the sex trade, when a child doesn't have to work in the factory anymore, or when an alcoholic never touches a drink again.

That is the freedom I want to celebrate.

Closure

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you.

Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today maybe forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be good enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the end, it is between you and Him....It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

Advice

Here's advice no one has ever told you, but I want you to have:

Go back to all the places you have bad memories of and make newer and better ones.

It may be difficult at first. Those bad memories are there and have been haunting you for quite some time now...But alas! They will quickly fade and be forgotten due to the intentional mission you have made!

I wish I could print mental pictures...but falling asleep with a smile on my face will just have to do for now.

meg

I was thinking of writing about how I've been worried about a lot of stuff lately...Finding a job, taking a really big test, money, where to live, blah blah blah...

But maybe I'll just adopt this little girl's attitude and let the rest work itself out.

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting

your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,

for your dreams,

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me whether things seem to be going your way.

I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow,

If you have been opened by life's betrayals

or have become shriveled and closed from further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,

if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips

of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be

realistic, to remember the

limitations of being human.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty every

day and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand

on the edge of the lake and

shout to the silver moon, "Yes!"

It does not interest me to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair,

weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the center of the

fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what

or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like

the company you keep in the empty moments.

-Anonymous