The less you open your heart to others the more your heart suffers.
- Deepak Chopra


We are bombarded daily by stress. When young, it rolls off us like water off a ducks back. Unfortunately as we age, stress begins to take it's toll on our physical and mental health. Exercise and meditation are recommended as ways to increase our ability to relax. Unfortunately who has the time for an hour of exercise and meditation?

Just sitting in front of the television is not relaxation because our minds are being bombarded by advertisements, murder and mayhem from our favorite TV drama's. Even the reality shows, those that have the inevitable "kicked off" episodes actually contribute to stress. We sit there holding our breath hoping that our favorites live to sing or dance another day.

Listening to the wrong kind of music can also increase stress. Rap with it's angry message can elevate our levels of stress without our even being aware of it. Hard driving headbanging music while fun to listen to for most of us also will drive our levels up rather than bringing us down.

In many Meditation Rooms at hospitals and spas, soft melodious instrumental music provides a background to the experience. It works by helping you regulate your breathing from near anxiety short gasping breaths to the long slow deep breathing necessary for true relaxation.

I compiled a music playlist of 30 New Age artists and their music. They may not be what you're used to but they'll either relax you or bore you to the point of sleep. Close your eyes, breathe deep and let the music do it's healing.

When you feel "dog tired" at night, it may be because you growled all day. - Anonymous



As of last night, the young boy who lost his nursing care has had it reinstated. It's a temporary situation through New York State Medicaid. His condition will be evaluated extensively and it may be that he will lose his night nurse, but his day nurse will be staying. He will be able to attend school. The night nurse situation will depend on what his actual abilities are. His condition hasn't been evaluated by his doctor since 2006. The insurance company cut off his care with no evaluation of his actual condition.

Apparently United Healthcare, the insurance company involved, is in some further hot water here in NY. Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse will no longer accept United as insurance for their patients. The hospital claims that United owes $2,000,000 in back healthcare payments. The state Attorney Generals office is also looking to bring a suit against that company and 3 other health insurance providers.

United Healthcare is a subsidiary of a company called Ingenix. That company is under investigation for artificially controlling insurance reimbursement rates, leaving thousands of their enrollees with much higher payments than they should be paying. Also involved in this scam, which is what it is, is Aetna, Cigna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

This may have some widespread ramifications, because United Healthcare is the AARP recommended Medigap insurance carrier. My Mom paid $203.00 a month for her policy through them. They did pay all of the remaining amounts owed to the hospitals and doctors involved in her care, but I still, 2 years later, get statements from them for bills I think should have been paid long before now.

I'm happy a solution was found for Keith and his Mom. It may not be the ideal situation down the road, but at least his care will be predicated on his actual condition and not some insurance company's actuarial tables. I'm also interested in seeing a positive outcome to the Attorney Generals investigation.

"Look for a new joyous feeling within you"...Dr Wayne Dyer.



For every evidence of ugliness in the world there are a thousand incidents of beauty. Our real life is hard enough and for many of us it may be getting ugly. There is always going to be suffering in the world and we are always going to have to find a way to deal with that.
I don't always do so with any real success.

I've decided to use my blog as a place of peace, with the hope that it may allow others a moment of tranquillity in a very hard world. I'm not going to preach, nor tell anyone what they need to do. I am going to provide, I hope, some inspiration and maybe a smile or two to light your day. I have found that I can't be angry when I'm smiling.

I also understand that life is not all sweetness and light, and I don't intend that this will be a Pollyanna endeavor. Just a place of peace and serenity in an otherwise hectic world.

I've again been reading blogs outside of this site and the comments left by others on some of the posts. Why are those people so angry? This week I have heard of an eighth grader who murdered another gay eighth grader because he was asked to be his Valentine. Yesterday a 3 year old died in Syracuse from injuries sustained while his mothers boyfriend was bashing his head on a concrete floor. He lived for 3 weeks and died yesterday while a benefit was being held to help his mother defray medical costs.

Our office cared for a survivor of such a beating. His head was repeatedly slammed against a wooden chair arm and the wall. By his own father. Keith, is now 12. He has existed since that beating as someone who must be fed by tube as he cannot swallow. He is unable to sit up on his own because he cannot control his muscles. He attends school daily, yet he learns little and although he expresses his love, he has limited speech capacity. This week we were notified that the insurance company will no longer pay for nursing services, as they feel care can be provided for this young person by Home Health Aide. Not in New York State it can't. His special needs require, under Department of Health regulations, skills that Home Health Aides do not have.

Keith requires feeding of a special formula every 4 hours. Only a nurse or family member can do this. Without a nurse this child will not be allowed to attend school. Without a nurse his mother will have to quit her job because she will need to stay up at night to feed him, and suction out his nose and mouth periodically so he doesn't choke on his own saliva. She will have to reposition him. She will have to care for him 24/7 without help because an insurance company has decided they will no longer pay for his care. When Kathy tried to speak to the representative of the insurance company and tell them she has to work, they told her she has to care for her child. You're the Mother, figure it out. How crude is that?

I was reading about the shooting death of rapper Juveniles 4 year old daughter. In the comments internet users were having a field day fighting with each other. I read 30 of them before I found one that expressed condolences. All the rest of them were spending their time labeling as ignorant every other comment they didn't agree with. How sad.

Anger, all of this, in one form or other is a tragic manifestation of anger. It is an anger contributed to by our daily living and the events we each experience. In the death of the eighth grader it was anger, possibly because the perpetrator was afraid of being thought of as gay. In the case of the two adults who seriously injured a child it was anger that the children wouldn't stop crying. In the case of the death of the rappers child, it was anger again.

On Friday, Ellen introduced a Dr. Wayne Dyer as a guest on her show. He said somethings that struck a chord in me. I went to his site and discovered that he does a daily inspirational quote. Todays inspirational quote was not something I truly understand, it needs some meditating on but I found this at the top of the meditation page:

"Realize how much your life matters"....Dr. Wayne Dyer. That will be my wish for today, that all the angry people realize how much their life matters. It's self worth, not ego that will create kindness where only anger existed.

A projected two to four inch overnight accumulation of snow became a twelve to fourteen inch accumulation while I was sleeping. This has fallen on top of the earlier in the week sixteen inch dusting we received. Since we weren't expecting this much we didn't do anything prior to retiring last night. Went to open the door this morning which is eight inches above the top step surface and it pushed enough snow up so that we couldn't entirely open the door.

To make matters worse, I went to step off the top step and miscalculated where the next step was. Sunk into the snow all the way down to the first step. I don't know about anyone else but MY 58 year old hips are no longer designed to do that type of split. Wait a minute. They did that type of split so maybe I was wrong. Anyway, I got hung up until Hubby could figure out how to get around me and steady me while I hopped out into more snow to bring my left foot down to a position below hip level. It's amazing just how high twelve inches of snow can drift in the wind when something is stopping it.

We are shoveled and snowblown out. Today we just seem to be having sunshine one minute and snow squalls the next. Big fluffy flakes with wind that seriously affect visibility. What passes for happiness today is a warm kitty, a good fire in the woodstove, a good book and some music. Oh yes, and a large jar of horse liniment for my sore leg muscles. The hips may never be the same.

****Music will return next weekend.****