Sunday, November 13, 2016

Bring Your Mom To Work Day

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

My Living Mentor & Reflection 2

The mentor I have chosen to discuss, for this class, is a registered nurse named M (shortened for privacy). Believe it or not, her last name is Champion. I actually did not choose her because of her awesome last name because she is a “Champion” by marriage and that union occurred after I thought of her as a mentor. She was one of the earliest coworkers, at my current job in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), that freely gave positive advice, critique, and wisdom when I first started my job as a patient care assistant five years ago. Although she has moved on from the MICU at UCH, her presence is still felt by many and that includes me. She currently works as a primary care nursing practitioner at a private medical clinic.
Formational experiences and communities that have been critical to my mentor’s vocational journey is her natural and inherent ability as a caregiver to not just herself as an individual, but for others as well beyond her own blood relatives. She and I share the experience of working with others, in a caregiving team, to help a patient. Not only do I see a strong sense of social justice, integrity, and a seeker of truth are only among a few characteristics that shines through her kind and trusting voice. Her belief in equity among humanity and the universe is another trait that I resonate with in terms of trying to learn from her own experiences, struggles, and cautionary tales. Her ability to look beyond the bad and look for a positive in any situation is something I have observed and made me self-reflect on my own ability to maintain and improve my “can-do” attitude.
Before becoming a nurse, she got her undergraduate degree in psychology, but wanted direct patient care in a team setting rather than in a private medical practice that has less patient population. This event then motivated her to become a registered nurse and eventually made her way to the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital. As I previously stated, she ultimately went back to school and got her Masters in Nursing and became a nursing practitioner at a private primary care facility. This happened for a variety of reasons which included getting married—tacking on “Champion” as her new surname—and raising a family. That changed her path for the better in terms of balancing her personal family life with her work life.
This is different from my own experience because she continued her nursing journey and got her master degree in nursing, while I have decided to not go beyond a patient care assistant/nursing assistant, and continuing on a path of being a spiritual caregiver in the form of hospital chaplaincy. We both will share the experience of remaining lifetime learners and caregivers to others, but we just have carved out our own respective personal journeys. I have yet to make a family (getting a significant other, having children, and beyond), but I hope that whatever comes my way that I enjoy life to the fullest.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

My Historical Partner & Reflection 1

James Morris Lawson Jr. was asked by his mother, “…what good did that do,” when he had returned from an errand. During that errand, he was called a racial slur, “nigger” by another person, and he had slapped that person in response. There was a discussion, between his mother and James, of their love of their family, God, and asking James, or “Jimmy” that his mother called him, if there was a better way to have handled that situation. This was one pivotal moment in Lawson’s life that I thought was very life changing for the better. His violent response gave power to those to use against him and people like Lawson.

His self-reflection of that moment with his mom and the events that occurred during that errand, has made me think about all those times in my own past about all the decisions I have made, will make, and how can I go about life thinking before I act with any type of negative reactions. I think what got me, growing up as a child, was when people made comments that prevented you from having a say. For example, I was called “gay” with the most hate behind the usage. I had not yet even fully comprehended the word and what it meant. I did not even know to take it as an insult, or a compliment, or if they were even talking about me in the first place.

My parents used to say, “hey is not my name” or in general not to use “hey” as a name identifier in place of another’s person’s name that they want to be called. I would call my mother “mom” or father “dad” rather than by their first name like “Clarita” and “Rogelio”. It was the whole “respect” aspect that I we all try to be taught during our growth period of childhood to the present and future. Although I do not use Japanese anymore because I am not longer immersed in that environment where I can practice it daily with others, I learned the “proper” and the “non-proper” which is present in most languages I have learned about. There was one way you would talk with friends, the way you talk with your parents, and then there was self-speak which is more of a stream of thoughts rather than actual sentences with grammar.

In reference to Lawson and his existential experience with his mother challenging him to make a different, or an even better, decision the next time another makes him feel threatened, I feel like peaceful resolution should always be on the mind. It is like constantly doing multiple-choice questions in your head and asking yourself, “choose the best possible answer” for a particular question. Sometimes the question, conflict, or issue at hand is tricky, but most of the time I have concluded to try and keep it simple. I always tell myself, “…to not overthink,” a situation and just take each possible option as a scenario. In other words, I try to treat every person I meet as a blank slate and take into account we most likely come from different parts of the world with different ideologies even if we share a religion, race, and or mindset.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Declaring My Spiritual Practice

My spiritual practice is primarily focused on my family genogram, or family constellation, of the struggles and successes that we have overcome as individuals in the universe. I journal through multimedia (producing and taking notes, pictures, music, video, tumblr, twitter, etc.) observe trends, comparisons, and connections that I share with my foremothers, forefathers, siblings, cousins, and so forth.
I ideally spend any time between thirty minutes to one hour everyday recording my own personal historical record of events of emotions, behaviors, feelings, and important events.
I write down dreams that were vivid, or discuss not having a dream due to restlessness. I try to apply the setting of the time and space I was writing (acknowledging explicitly, or just writing to the side the date and time of a particular entry).
I will use tools like Tumblr, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media utilities to document my endless stream of thoughts, feelings, goals, aspirations, etc.
I call it, “Michael’s Mystical Constellation of God’s Blueprint Book”, or in other words, a multimedia feed of blog posts that include everything about Michael Albano (me, myself, and I) in the Universe and my connection to the God and others.