© irene waters 2015

Three things Thursday created by Nerd In the Brain  says:”three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy”.

I am so tired this week that I am struggling to keep my eyes open. I have been busy but due to the puppy Muffin I am not getting the requisite number of hours sleep ( and I don’t need many) to refuel and refresh for the next day. I can feel the exhaustion building and I know that one day I am going to wake up and sleep all day. Just the thought of that brings me a smile. But that is not one of my three things that have made me smile this week (and there have been many).

Out of the blue, totally unexpected I received a phone call from a nursing colleague whom I was very friendly with when she was the Nursing Unit Manager and I was the clinical nurse Educator in Intensive Care. Whilst we worked together we found that not only did we have nursing values that corresponded but we also shared a similar world view. We had lots of laughs then and we did again on Tuesday when we met for a coffee. I just love it when you can see someone once in a blue moon and you can take up just where you left off.

My second smile was for a similar reason. A girl that I did my nurse training with lives in the hinterland and once a month we catch up over coffee or lunch, and always there are many smiles. We were so close when we were student nurses but post graduation we have lived in different states or countries, seeing each other only on the odd occasion. To have a regular monthly get together is a joy.

My third smile is my thanks that the two falls my 87 year old Mum had yesterday did not leave her with any injury. Both times the ambulance was called to get her up and check her out. The second saw her taken to hospital as she had two huge eggs on her head having fallen backwards onto the hard kitchen floor tiles. A CT scan showed that all was well and I was allowed to take her home around 10pm. That too brought a smile as so often these visits to the Emergency Room see you sitting there until the wee hours of the morning.

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh