Words have great impact on our lives. Imagine if we couldn’t communicate or share with others. I choose to use my words to be inspirational or motivational or to bring humor and laughter to others.

Have you ever encountered people who are negative or critical or use their words for hate? Bullies? What inspired me to use words in a positive manner stems from a number of negative experiences. For example, I’ll relay a story of when I went back to nursing twenty years after I had graduated from nursing school.

My kids were teens and self-sufficient and I had missed my career. I strode into Hospital USA confident, maybe a little too confident, as the Human Resources Co-Ordinator determined my skill set was fitting for a Progressive Care Unit (step-down floor for post-Intensive Care Unit patients). I interviewed well and got the job.

I was one of the older nurses on that unit. In a way, it was a shame I interviewed well, or perhaps I misrepresented my skill set, as the fast pace of a trauma/gastric bypass/orthopedic/cardiac telemetry floor lended itself to young graduate nurses with youth and physical strength on their side. Oh they didn’t outsmart me … I had all the training to compete, as a matter of fact there was an instance when a doctor wrote an order and those graduate nurses had no clue that fresh frozen plasma is used for disseminated intravascular coagulation.

It was very physically demanding to say the least and at forty years of age I had no business working on that unit, but what beat me down the most was not how physically demanding it was, but how unsupportive and unkind some of my colleagues were. They gave bullying and “nurses eat their young” a new meaning. I was laughed at because I was fat and at 225 pounds I would have to agree that I was  a poor example of good health. I was called stupid because on day one the young preceptor assigned to me for orientation, in an attempt to intimidate me, asked what are the five rights of medication administration (a question you ask student nurses, not a seasoned nurse) and I was so stunned to have encountered someone so arrogant and demeaning that I was speechless a little too long before stammering out the answer.

Two nurses in particular wreaked havoc on my self-esteem and after one too many patients disrespect of “send that bitch with my pain meads”, having IV poles with heavy pumps on them thrown at me by alcoholic patients in delirium tremens, ruining my back lifting total hip or total knee patients on and off bedpans, I hung up my ego and my stethoscope. It took me several years before I was able to go back into nursing.

What I learned from that experience was many things, one of which is how important our actions and words are. Not just what we say but how we speak those words. I’ve forgiven those who weren’t always kind to me because I know there have been times in my life when I too was unkind to others.

I’ve been an amateur writer for a long time. I’ve collected poems and jokes and quotes for years, so I am including some of my favorite inspirations. I am including favorite quotes from some of my friends and family as well which make me smile or lift my spirit. (Some are funny and make me laugh … those will be included in another story in the future.)

So I thank each one of you for sharing your favorites and hope you enjoy reading what others have to offer. I too am sharing some my favorite uplifting, inspirational, positive quotes.

I’ll end with words that help me stay true to myself: let my words never hurt or hinder or harm, whether I am on the job nursing or dealing with a friend or talking to the cashier at Wal-Mart.

Words … use them wisely for they can never be retracted.

Beginning with some of my personal favorites, which are appropriate for the “bullying” nurses …

…. Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all ~ Aristotle

When words are both true and kind they can change the world ~ Buddha

Kindness is more than deeds. It is an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person ~ Plato

Do everything with gentleness, with kindness, with reverence. That is how grace moves; that is how love dances ~ Heather O’Hara

Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see ~ Mark Twain

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted ~ Aesop

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness ~ Dalai Lama

Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your Heart for Love.

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all ~ Paul Fincher per my great-grandmother Johnson

Love is that condition where the happiness of another person is essential to your own ~ Tami Galipo

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace ~ Karen Stahl

Life is a song, God’s love is the music ~ Frances Hurst

Moments matter ~ Vicki Morton

Beauty is as beauty does … Beauty is only skin deep ~ Estelle Roberts

Can’t we all just get along ~ Babs Pecina

Don’t make me come down there … God ~ Jacque Wilbanks

“Be still and know I am God” Psalm 446:10 ~ Mary Jane Close

Life isn’t fair. Fair is when you get cotton candy and life ain’t always sweet, honey ~ Amy Collins per her father

It’s not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy ~ Meredith Moore

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths ~ The Holy Bible  Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV per Brenda Curtis

Wherever you are, be all there ~ Mary Bobbit per her beloved, JD Bobbit

And what better way to feel personally uplifted and loved … from a dear friend of over forty years … Because of you, I laugh a little harder, cry a little less, and smile a lot more ~ Teri Bailey

And there’s S’more to Come ~ Lee Evans …

A blessed & happy day to all!