Week Two: Learning about Healing and Whatnot

"You cannot not think about what you are thinking about." -- Kay Parker

Sure, I buy that.

Yes, the ever-so wise Kay Parker of the Healing Place here in Florence came and paid the Honors Forum class a visit last Monday. From 6:00 to 6:50 she talked to us about (1) Herself, (2) The Healing Place, and (3) Me! I didn't know how on earth she was going to talk about me. She didn't even know me. But then she said that quote I posted on the first line of this blog; I guess she knows at least a little bit about me. However, her exercise instructing us not to think about blank-blank (I forgot what she told us not to think about) failed on me; when she told me not to think about blank-blank, I thought about pink elephants.

 Awww How cute :-)

Remember that dream scene in Dumbo? Trippy...Anyways!

(1) About Kay Parker.

Okay, Kay Parker was voted the 2007 Shoals Woman of the Year. She studied at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned a degree in education and became qualified to teach in High School. She didn't do that though (smart move, teenagers are mean people). She was a secretary for different positions, and then worked at the school of Nursing here at UNA. From there she worked on getting her masters degree. She currently runs the Healing Place here in town. She's a very nice lady. In retrospect I probably should have sat a bit closer (because she's a soft spoken woman and I couldn't hear parts of what she said), but oh well.

(2) About The Healing Place

The Hospice of the Shoals is a nonprofit hospice that was slow to start when it first opened up. After quite some time of searching for donations, United Way, along with other donations and grants, gave the hospice some start up money. The goal of the hospice is to comfort people who have experienced something tragic, and are in the grieving process. The Healing place teaches people how to cope and let out grief or pain. How does one cope, you may ask? Mrs. Parker tells us to follow these steps:

     FIRST- Be honest with yourself. Admit to yourself that you are grieving

     SECOND - Be expressive. Shout, scream, cry, all three. It'll help.

     THIRD- Be physical. Beat up your pillow, buy one of those Bobo dolls and smash it with a hammer, just        

                   don't hurt yourself (or others) in the process.

     LAST- Be aware of what is bothering you. pretty self-explanatory. How can you cope with grief if you

                 don't know what's causing it?

(3) About Me

I like talking about me. I especially like it when others people want me to talk about myself. Mrs. Parker asked us to fill in the following sentence: "Birds fly, fish swim, I ______." After two seconds of contemplation I found my answer.

"I Create."

I have this awesome project I'm going to work on over the course of this year that involves a whole bunch of chopsticks. I digress. Mrs. Parker advised us to get involved with meaningful work that improves society. The way I see myself improving society is by creative means. I'd like to make something for people. I don't know what that something is just yet, but I think I'll figure it out in time. 

It is 5:02 right now and I feel accomplished for completing two blogs now. I believe I have earned myself a food break. Bye Bye.