Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, agreement, aid, anxiety, assistance, bliss, bridge, burden, bus, car, care, cheer, choice, christmas, clinic, cold, companion, compassion, concern, couple, cross, depression, desire, doctor, duty, elderly, era, exam, experience, eyes, focus, goodness, gratitude, gynecologist, happiness, health, heart, highway, history, holiday, holidays, hospital, husband, ice, identification, inspiration, job, journey, joy, kindness, labor, legs, license, life, lifestyle, lifetime, load, love, man, medication, medicine, memory, mind, movement, music, nurse, ocean, offer, office, others, partner, passenger, path, period, physician, pill, pills, quiz, rivers, road, scripture, sea, seniors, sign, singer, size, smiles, space, specialist, spouse, stream, stress, struggles, surgeon, task, test, thankfulness, therapy, time, traffic, travel, treatment, trials, trip, vehicle, volunteer, water, weather, weight, wife, winter, woman, work, worries, worry
Doeth Good Like Medicine
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“A Merry heart doeth good like medicine.”
– Prov. 17:22 (KJV)
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Hospital volunteers do no clinical work. Volunteers have no physically therapeutic treatment of offer. They dispense no medicine. But we cannot deny that they demonstrate the merry hearts as spoken of in Proverbs 17:22. At the core of volunteering is the fervent desire to “doeth good like medicine.” Because I am privileged to experience a daily confirmation of the good done by volunteers, it is very difficult to choose one vignette or narrow the choices of stories to one.
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It was Christmas time and our elderly visitor was back to see her husband in the Intensive Care Unit. We had watched her daily visits, and could tell she was becoming more distant and distraught with each day. She was rather frail and unsteady on her feet, but refused any offer of assistance.
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Volunteer John approached her on her way out, to offer her a ride back to her car in our shuttle as it was cold. She accepted reluctantly, almost as if in resignation. While helping her into the shuttle,
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Mar 25 2012
Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, anxiety, appreciation, bank, beauty, belief, blessings, bliss, blossom, blossoms, body, breakfast, bridge, burden, bus, cancer, care, check, children, clinic, color, colors, compassion, concern, courage, cross, delight, depression, dinner, doctor, duty, elderly, era, exam, example, exercise, eyes, faith, family, favor, feeling, feelings, fish, fishing, flowers, food, friends, funds, garden, gift, God, granny, gratitude, grown ups, gynecologist, happiness, health, heart, Heaven, highway, home, hospital, House, humanity, husband, imagination, inspiration, job, journey, joy, knowledge, labor, language, laughter, learning, letter, life, lifestyle, lifetime, love, mail, man, memories, mind, moment, money, morning, mountain, movement, neighbor, noise, nurse, office, others, pain, passenger, path, patient, perception, period, physician, plant, plants, present, quiz, relaxation, rest, road, role model, seniors, size, skin, sleep, smiles, snack, snacks, son-in-law, soul, sound, specialist, spirit, strength, stress, success, sugar, summer, sunshine, support, surgeon, surprise, task, test, thankfulness, thought, time, token, travel, treatment, trials, trip, vegetable, vegetables, veggie, veggies, vehicle, voice, weight, wife, woman, wonder, words, work, worries, worry

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The Rented Room
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Our house was directly across the street from the clinic
entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived
downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the
clinic.
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One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at
the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.
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“Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I
stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing
was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.
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Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come
to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a
treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no
bus ’til morning.”
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He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no
success, no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face…
I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more
treatments…”
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For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me,
“I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus
leaves early in the morning.”
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I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.
I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready,
I asked the old man if he would join us. “No thank you.
I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag.
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When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk
with him a few minutes. It didn’t take a long time to see that
this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.
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He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her
five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from
a back injury.
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He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other
sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing.
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He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was
apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him
the strength to keep going.
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At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him.
When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded
and the little man was out on the porch.
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He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus,
haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said,
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“Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a
treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a
chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made
me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children
don’t seem to mind.”
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I told him he was welcome to come again.
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And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the
morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the
largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them
that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh.
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I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m., and I wondered what time he
had to get up in order to do this for us.
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In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never
a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables
from his garden.
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Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special
delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young
spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.
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Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing
how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.
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When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a
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Mar 25 2012
Posted: under "DID YOU KNOW", Advice & Tips.
Tags: advice, aroma, baby, bliss, body, changes, coffee, day, depression, doctor, drugs, experience, food, guide, happiness, health, herbs, hospital, instruction, job, joy, license, man, medication, medicine, mind, money, New York, New York City, nurse, pharmacist, pharmacy, physician, recipe, relaxation, relief, remedies, research, smiles, stress, task, therapy, tips, treatment, woman, work

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Bath by Bettijo Relief
Organic Stick
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Head hurts? Try one of these doctor-approved pain relievers.
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Relaxation Techniques
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Best for: Soothing stress before a headache starts.
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Apr 12 2011
Posted: under "A Slice Of Life", "DID YOU KNOW", Advice & Tips.
Tags: anxiety, body, brain, depression, diet, energy, exercise, foods, fruits, health, heart, herbs, importance, learning, medication, memory, mood, multivitamins, nuts, oils, prescription, psychology, seeds, sleep, stress, supplements, treatment, vegetables
How to treat depression without prescription medications.

Food fixes
Dietary changes can alter the brain both chemically and structurally. If you’re feeling blue, take a step toward recovery by ensuring that your diet includes the following:
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Fish oil contains high levels of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid); a deficiency in DHA has been linked to depression. When DHA is plentiful, your mood isn’t the only thing that gets a boost—memory and learning are enhanced as well. Not a fish fan? Essential fatty acids are also found in a variety of seeds, nuts, oils and leafy vegetables.
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Antioxidant-rich foods can also serve to bolster mental health. Try to include apricots, broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, spinach, sweet potato, blueberries, kiwi and oranges, among others, in your diet.
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Daily multivitamins are the final step in keeping your brain and body properly
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