Good News/Good Mood Friday

I hate to be so serious on Good News/Good Mood Friday. . .but, did you know that even over-the-counter pills can become dangerous?  No? Neither did Jesse Spano. . .

Wise Words

How far you go in life depends on your being

 tender with the young, 

compassionate with the aged, 

sympathetic with the striving 

and tolerant of the weak and strong, 

because someday in your life, 

you will have been all of these. 

--Unknown

Todays Word is . . . Gratitude.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

--Meister Eckhart

It seems like people feel too entitled these days, and when you're in a service profession and it's your literally your job to serve them, that sense of entitlement can become bothersome.  Still, it doesn't mean that people can't be grateful.  When I'm at a restaurant I'm perpetually kind to the wait staff - even if they aren't nice to me.  I'm one of the few people I know who say please and thank you all the time.  It's nice to be nice.

As my UB Dental run finishes up I'm starting to complete some patient cases.  This week the following happened:

Monday:  My crazy patient loved - LOVED - his new dentures.  I made the pointy teeth extra pointy per his request and he thought the sweet chrome (his words - not mine) was really, really cool.  When he left he told me that I had made his life better.  Gratitude.

Today:  This morning my patient told me that she had reason to smile again because of her new bridge.  She asked me if she could hug me and told me that because of me she isn't scared to go to the dentist anymore.  Gratitude.  Then, later in the day a patient I've worked on for the last 2 years wished me health, love and happiness.  She hugged me, too.  Gratitude.

These are just a few example of gratitude.  Use them as a starting point for your own moments.  Say please and thank you.  Tell someone they did a good job.  Let someone know if they make a difference in your day.  Even a silent smile can be enough recognition.

Gratitude.

Smile-worthy

Today my patient told me that I made his life.  I made him a set of complete dentures.  I thought they looked great, but I was pretty attached to the project.  Still, his complete joy is really refreshing.

Here's to simple, smile-worthy moments.

Had any lately?

Wise Words

It dawned on my tonight that I only have two weeks of clinic left in dental school.  As one significant part of life ends, it seems that the rest is just about to start.

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.

Yet that will be the beginning." (Louis L'Amour)

Words In My Head

I'm a little anxious right now.  It's a combination of things, really.  I'm getting ready to wrap up my tenure here in Buffalo, NY, and that leaves me feeling unsure.  I'm a creature of habit, I don't do things that are new and different.  I like my routine.  Rinse and repeat.  I'm getting ready to finally be a member of the real world for the first time in 26 years.  Weekly paycheck?  Enjoyable.   Impending adulthood?  Not sure.  So, in an effort to put the butterflies in my stomach to sleep, I bring you this list of my Top 5 most calming and inspiring songs.  Enjoy and feel free to add your own.

5) "Both Sides, Now" - Neil Diamond version

Ive looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

Its lifes illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all

4) "Superman" - Five for Fighting

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet

Digging for kryptonite on this one way street

Only a man in a funny red sheet

Looking for special things inside of me

And it's not easy to be me

3) "My Way" - Frank Sinatra

I planed each chartered course;

Each careful step along the byway,

But more, much more than this,

I did it my way.

2) "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate" - Jackson Browne

Sometimes I lie awake at night

And wonder

Where my life will lead me

Waiting to pass under sleep's dark and silent gate

1) "Fix You" - Coldplay

When you try your best but you don't succeed

When you get what you want but not what you need

When you feel so tired but you can't sleep

Lights will guide you home and I will try to fix you

My Murtaugh List

"Life is a dinner and old-age is the dessert." (Ted, How I Met Your Mother)

"I'm too old for this shit!" (Roger Murtaugh, Lethal Weapon -->)   

I am an old man before my time.  I would live happiest in a world of early-bird dinner specials and daily trips to the grocery store that only procure a single item.  In honor of my loving embrace of old-age, I bring you my Murtaugh List.  These are the things I'm too old to do and quite frankly, don't want to do anymore. 

Drinking to the point of throwing up - I might never have been young enough to do this.  Then again, I don't think it's youth that one requires, it's stupidity.  Still, I've spoken to Ralph on the porcelain phone more than once.  I've got to tell ya, I've never had a night that was good enough to merit dry heaving the next morning until you can see the angels.

Staying up past 11pm - I'll do it, I will.  I just won't enjoy it.  My days are busy.  Hell, my life is busy.  I like it that way.  Sleep is probably my favorite thing.  I won't rob myself of the things I love.

Thinking that it's cool to be "that guy" - I tried a little in high school, never tried in college and embraced my inner geek in dental school (not a big reach).  "Those guys" and "those girls" from high school keep showing up on my Facebook telling me how awesome they are, what cool nights they have planned ("Cocktails with my bestest girlies!") and what great accomplishments they've made in life ("That guy" is "so bummed because I got called in to work.  I hate you Gap, Inc.!").  I'm too old to be that guy.  I really am awesome, I really do have cool plans and I actually have accomplished a whole lot.

Facebook/iChat - I think I'm too old for these things, but I refuse to give them up.  When the time comes to give them up, will it be obvious to me?  All signs point to no, as I've recently begun seeing parents of friends arrive on the social networking scene.  God help me if I continue to update my status with things like, "Patients all day then picking up kid #1 from the babysitter while wife takes kid #2 to pediatrician because he/she has an earache.  Uggh!"

So, what's on your list?