88 - CSI Challenge - Life Lessons

http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/forum/topics/case-file-no-88-case-closes-on-september-15-2013

These colours were super challenging for me this week and I probably would have been tempted to ditch this layout and start again if I had another day to play with.  Part of that is my personal aversion to the Autumnal tones. Part is the dodgy photo, but it’s about the only one I have of that time.....still the story is told I must give thanks to Debbi, who week after week, provides these superb challenges, not just the colours, but the journalling prompts, which somehow flick a switch in the subconscious and tap into rich veins of memory.  I don’t know how you do it Debbi, but I love CSI  and all your efforts to make it run like clockwork.   Thank you 

A couple of closies

EVIDENCE
Floral pattern - on the strips
Clock
Pen 
Doodle
Frame

TESTIMONY
I chose to write about something I’ve learned.  The journalling reads.

When I look at this photo, taken at the beginning of my Nursing Training, I had no idea how much hard yakka would be involved in finishing the course.  I soon learned to survive twelve hour shifts; to endure the interminable night duty, and with a Senior Nurse, to run a small hospital at night.  Matron was on call, but we were trusted to do everything else; the turning and pressure care of bed ridden patients; the monitoring of babies in the nursery and gavaging of those too weak to suck;  the dispensing of medications; the care of the dying and laying out of the dead.

When Matron sat me at the dining room table, with one arm in a sling and eyes blindfolded, I learned to place the food tray within reach of the patient and ask if they’d like some help to eat. I learned to treat each patient with dignity and kindness. I understood it was O.K. to cry when a local man was scooped off the road in fragments and couldn’t be cobbled together again. 

I learned to be calm in emergencies; to see a crisis in the making and take steps to avert it. Most of all I recognized that a career in Nursing was not for sissies. The hours were long and the pay was a pittance, but the rewards were enormous.  To see a critical patient restored to health, to witness the miracle of birth and to hold the hand of the dying, was an honour and a privilege.  

When patients, no matter how old, are in pain and afraid, they often call for their Mothers.  I learned to understand their need; to sit, listen to their fear, not offering solutions, but simply being fully present.  The black and white certitudes of my youth melted away by exposure to life in the raw and I realized the more I learned, the less I knew.  Most things I used to fret about don’t really matter. I’ve learned to “BE” in the moment, to enjoy the shenanigans of the Grandchildren; to bask in the warmth of my family’s love and to count my blessings every day.  Journalling September 2013

MATERIALS

Watercolour paper

Graphic 45 - Bohemian Bazaar “Dazzling delights” Photo frame

Graphic 45 - Bohemian Bazaar “Dazzling delights” Strips

Faber Castell - Gelatos

Crafter’s Workshop Stencil - mini peacock pattern

Derivan Matisse - Impasto

My Mind’s Eye - Collectable, wooden butterfly

Prima - alphas

Prima - Stamp

Prima - flowers

Kaiser craft - flowers

Petaloo - flowers

Kaisercraft stamp - arty

Kaisercraft - acetate clock

Tim Holts - washi tape

Craft Queen washi - lime floral

Key - $2.00 shop

Bo-Bunny - Buttons. “C’est La Vie”

Scrapmatts - Leaves CB115

Spellbinder die - Romantic rectangle