Mindopener

Sometimes we hang on to pain so dearly, it begins to define us. We don’t know what we’d do without it. We get used to it, like an old, moth-worn blanket that never really keeps us warm.

This week, we offer up quotes on letting go:

“True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.”

“Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.”

“There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.”

“When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you’ll come to realize what you were dragging around with you. And for that, no one else other than you was responsible.” Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“It’s all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.” Mick Jagger

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” Jim Morrison

“Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go.”

Image Source: TheEnvisage

Most of us have heard about the dangers of taking antibiotics for every sniffle and scrape. But Norway just proved, on a countrywide scale, that not using antibiotics can save a nation. This is a must read:

BY MARTHA MENDOZA AND MARGIE MASON

OSLO, Norway — Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia last year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway’s public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway’s model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

“It’s a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] can be controlled, and with not too much effort,” said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo’s MRSA medical advisor. “But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention and you must not give up.”

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat.

Now, in Norway’s simple solution, there’s a glimmer of hope.

ANTIBIOTICS MISSING

Dr. John Birger Haug shuffles down Aker’s scuffed corridors, patting the pocket of his baggy white scrubs. “My bible,” the infectious disease specialist says, pulling out a little red Antibiotic Guide that details this country’s impressive MRSA solution.

It’s what’s missing from this book — an array of antibiotics — that makes it so remarkable.

“There are times I must show these golden rules to our doctors and tell them they cannot prescribe something, but our patients do not suffer more and our nation, as a result, is mostly infection free,” he says.

Norway’s model is surprisingly straightforward.

• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

• Patients with MRSA are isolated and medical staff who test positive stay home.

• Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they’ve been and who they’ve been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.

“We don’t throw antibiotics at every person with a fever,” says Haug. “We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.”

A close-up look at staph

Much has been said about Gabourey Sidibe’s weight. Being one of the heaviest women in Hollywood in a place to blatantly encourages thinness at all costs, it’s no surprise.

But Gabourey has maintained her positivity in the face of naysayers. And she has consistently kept her focus on her talent and positivity, not her weight.

While she lost the Best Actress award to Sandra Bullock, today we celebrate somebody in the media spotlight who is non-traditionally radiant and throws a wrench in what we consider “beautiful.”

That’s positive news!

“I used to get hurt so badly. Any bit of criticism, I would cry. But at some point I just realized, I count more than anyone else, or anybody’s opinion, because I’m living my life — I’m captain of this ship, without a first mate. And I really, really like who I am. I really, really dig me.”

- Gabourey Sidibe

Love endures. At least that’s how the saying goes. But this couple proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not only does love endure, it heals and conquers and enters triathalons:

In 2007, Beth Kallok joined a Los Angeles area triathlon group for fun. Although she’d always been athletic, she soon realized it was more extreme than she’d expected: she’d been accustomed to staying out late at bars, but that was definitely not part of the training regime. And her coach, Lawrence Fong, let her know that such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.

At first, Beth thought Lawrence was a pain. But before long, she grew to understand his rigorous training techniques, and started taking the practice seriously.

She realized there was a lot more to Lawrence than she’d initially realized, too: they began dating, and when Beth crossed the finish line of her first triathlon, Lawrence proposed. Despite her exhaustion from completing the 141-mile race, Beth was happier than she’d ever been in her life.

After the young couple got married in April 2007, they’d planned to compete in the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii together that fall. But life had other plans.

Two weeks before the race, Beth received a phone call from a friend. Her new husband had been at a restaurant when he’d collapsed on the floor and hit his head in the bathroom. He was bleeding profusely, and had been rushed to the hospital.

When Beth arrived, the situation was even worse than she’d expected. Although he was conscious, Lawrence didn’t recognize his own wife.

Soon, the doctors realized that Lawrence had a blood clot against his brain stem that would need to be removed. After the surgery was performed, Lawrence slipped into a coma. A doctor told Beth that Lawrence was brain-dead, and that she should think about removing his life support system.

But Beth didn’t believe the doctor. “I was scared, but deep down I always knew that this was not how our story would end,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

Beth visited Lawrence every day in the hospital, talking to him even though he wasn’t able to respond. She believed that he could hear her—and on Christmas Eve, she discovered that she had been right all along. When she asked him if he was cold, he nodded at her. She repeated the question; he nodded again.

In the two years since then, Lawrence’s progress has been slow, but steady. He has learned to speak again, to stand up, and to walk with support. Though he still needs to use a wheelchair, he has ambitions of racing again one day—but for now, he is content to support his wife. He has become her coach, cheering her on from his chair.

The experience has transformed Lawrence’s life. “He got to come back in the world we met in and we both thrived in,” said Beth.

Her husband’s love and support has helped her, too. Last fall, with Lawrence’s encouragement, Beth finally raced in the Ironman Competition, knowing that Lawrence was waiting for her at the finish line—believing in her, just as she’d believed in him.

Arizona Ironman finisher Beth Fong celebrates with her husband Lawrence after crossing the finish line last November, more than 14 hours after she started.

Source: Gimundo & Los Angeles Times

In dedication to the profound loss our global neighbors of Chile suffered on February 27th. Please take a moment to pray for them today.

Source: The Boston Globe AP Photo/ Aliosha Marquez

A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end. - Aristotle