Kate Loving Shenk

This Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your…Year!

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:42:28 +0000

Happy New Year To all!

The New Year is such a time when the sun is brighter, days are longer by a moment or two, and we all look forward to great times.

Blue River At Sun Set

Hope Is Triumphant!

Life is crystal clear as we look back on the old and embrace the beauty of new beginnings.

New Year Resolutions, new resolve, new and exciting journeys of self-realization and self-healing.

May we all prosper.

May we all throw off the shackles of false thinking.

May our very thoughts liberate our lives!

Happy New Year From Kate & Muki!

Kate Loving Shenk

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Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called “Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny.” The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate’s Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
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River Dolphin Blues

admin — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:45:32 +0000

Dolphin Sounds Blend In With This Beautiful Music.

I hope everyone had a delightful 12/25/2008 celebrating with
family and friends.

One of the beautiful and harmonious things we did today was
listen to the music of Claus Jensen.

He sent me three of his CDs to write an article and lens about
his musical compositions.

I live on the meandering Conestoga River, as pictured here.

At one point on the CD, a Dolphin creates a sound that pierces
the consciousness of anyone fortunate enough to hear it.

One of my guests said, “What was that?”

I said, “A Dolphin.”

People there were confused because they thought the sound was
emanating from somewhere in the great outdoors.

Another of my guests said, “A river Dolphin?”

Ah yes, a river Dolphin.

That, my friends, is a beautiful image to forever hold about
the mythical water that flows everywhere around and through us
all.

Read the article about Claus Jensen’s music here:

Nurse Healers

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Kate Loving Shenk

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me–see privacy notice on my website!

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Meditation In Prison: Jenny Phillips On Oprah’s Soul Series

admin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:32:01 +0000

Oprah Reading From “Dhamma Brothers”

I was having a conversation the other day about all the ways I could think of
for my son Devin to get out of going to Jury Duty in Brooklyn, New York, where he
lives.

Suddenly I found myself ranting about the American Judicial System, particularly the
fact that the rehabilitation of hardened criminals is virtually nonexistent.

I told Devin about the book, “We Are All Doing Time,”by Bo Lozoff, which describes
Bo’s experiences with the “Prison Ashram Project. He took meditation programs
into prisons, thus helping unruly and chaotic people find peace of mind through their
spiritual practice.

This program is still fully functioning, under the auspices of “The Human Kindness
Foundation.”

The marvelous action of synchronicity took over from here and began to work its magic.
I found Jenny Phillips on Oprah’s Soul Series. Jenny is a Cultural Anthropologist and
psychotherapist. She has been working in the field of Mental Health for fifteen years.

Much of her work has been associated with male prisoners teaching inmate courses on
Emotional Literacy as well as Vipassana meditation, an ancient meditation technique based
on the teachings of Buddha more than 2600 years ago. Jenny has helped hardened
criminals, many serving multiple life sentences, transform their lives by giving them tools
to face their past and become more purposeful human beings.

Her book, “Dhamma Brothers: Meditation Behind Bars,” is a collection of letters and
interviews from inmates who took part in the meditation course.

Oprah was fascinated by the book. She said according to Eckhart Tolle, who with Oprah,
did the ten week New Earth Webinar Course, said all people are imprisoned within
the confines of their mind.

We can all access the power of prayer and meditation no matter where we find ourselves,
even if that place is in one of the most dangerous prison in the world.

Jenny Phillips used to lead psychotherapy groups in prison. She saw something special
about prisoners: they are searching for meaningful change.

The prison population is an under served group in our society. Jenny said she was not
afraid of these men except maybe the first few minutes. She said they have bottled up misery
and are searching for ways to rebuild their lives.

She said they don’t speak of trivial subjects, similar to a person on her deathbed or a person
in a war torn part of the world.

She learned that a person’s act is not who they really are.

However, the general consensus here in this country is to throw “those people” behind bars
and toss away the key.

But the truth is two-fold: These people are real and have much to teach.

And 97% of them will get out of prison one day.

Do we want chaotic, dysfunctional people to be prowling the streets again or do we want
peaceful, purposeful, self-reflecting people to be released to the outer world, perhaps
joining any one of us on the streets, the parks, or in the cafes all across America?

Jenny Phillips felt a calling to go to the Donaldson Correctional Institution to do her work.
What she found were human beings in great suffering looking for solutions.

Jenny Seems To Be Perpetually Meditating

She set up shop in the prison psychologist office and one by one, prisoners were brought to her.
She asked them poignant questions such as: What do you want out of life? What are your greatest
dreams and hopes? If you could, how would you change your life?

After the prisoners were chosen to do the work, a Vipassana retreat was arranged: ten hours a day
for ten days, sitting, breathing, silence, without TV, cell phone, radio, talking or any other common
distraction we face in modern society.

They only ate healthy vegetarian fare.

What is the purpose of Vipassana? It is to take the journey deep within.

The only way out is in.

The first few days of breathing and sitting, following air as it moves in and out of the nose,
is when the memories and regrets surface. This is when a man faces his past,
faces what he really did to cause great suffering to another human being whether it be murder,
accomplice to murder, rape, robbery, or any number of other heinous acts,

Questions may arise inwardly such as who am I at the core of my being? Preconceived belief systems
from childhood resurface and are examined.

The Vipassana meditation experience gives these men skills and a safe place to explore the inner landscape
of the mind, and is a help for them to come to terms with everything that has ever happened.

Or potentially will happen.

Oprah said, “My listeners will ask, ‘Why should I care if these people feel safe or if they have skills
to deal with their lives?’ ”

Jenny Phillips responded, “Because 97% of these prisoners will one day be released. And by
creating a safe haven for them, everyone around them in turn feels safe. Murderous acts with in the prison
walls are prevented. Correction officers are protected.”

Jenny said that if these men continue to be treated without respect, with total disregard for their
humanity, then they will come back to society and commit worse crimes.

The prison psychologist at Donaldson gives the book called, “Houses Of Healing” to every prisoner.
The book teaches inmates how to meditate.

But Jenny Phillips is the first to teach Vipassana meditation in the prison system. She contacted
the Vipassana Meditation Center to help her carry out her mission. After much discussion, organization
and negotiation, Vipassana meditation teachers were recruited to Donaldson to institute and
teach the program there.

The teachers were given a locked room overlooking the meditating prisoners and were available to help
when needed.

Oprah said that this program and others like it are going to literally save the world because if
we do not institute strategic programs NOW we will not survive as a species.

As Eckhart Tolle says, we must evolve or die.

The Vipassanan Bootcamp, as it is called, may seem like a dire and extreme solution.

But the prisoners worked very hard. They not only meditated the allotted ten hour period, but
continued to meditated after the ten hours passed. These men were willing to sacrifice everything
to find inner peace.

Their crimes were catalysts for extreme inner growth.

How many people in America can say the same thing?

How many of us are willing to do without computer, TV, cellphone for ten hours a day, for ten days
of complete immersion in self-reflection?

These men are testaments that change is not only possible, but inevitable, if certain disciplines are followed.

Anyone can change,

Few choose to do so.

Radical honesty and humility is the key to this level of transformation.

May we allow the most feared people in society to show us the way?

Kate Loving Shenk

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me–see privacy notice on my website!

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Health Care Crisis In Need Of A Solution: Single Payer!!

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:38:34 +0000

Time to fight for new health system

We'd have more time for healing if we didn't have to fight the insurance companies all the time!!!

By Dr. William Davidson Jr.
Lebanon Daily News

This year America will spend $2.4 trillion on health care, well more than $7,000 for every man, woman and child existing within our borders. Thirty years ago the price tag was less than $1,000 per person, but then there were no CAT scans or MRIs, and laparoscopic surgery was in its infancy.

Yes, the incredible expansion in technology that has created the miracles of modern medicine has also produced a huge economic burden such that one-third of our taxes now go to pay for health care. Were that money used wisely and efficiently then perhaps the burden would not seem so onerous.

Unfortunately, only 70 cents of every dollar paid into the system actually returns to us in the form of health care. Thirty cents out of every dollar goes to administer a very dysfunctional system that has become a profit center for special interests that do not have the best interests of our people at heart.

Thirty years ago when the price tag was affordable, very few of the players in the system were getting rich off of it. Insurance companies were truly “nonprofit.” The pharmaceutical industry had acceptable profits, and health-care providers didn’t need advertizing agencies and marketing specialists.

While technology is here to stay, we cannot afford to tolerate those who exploit the system to the tune of $300 billion a year. That’s right. If we eliminate the private medical-insurance industry, group-negotiate the price of medicines and make patient care the primary focus of health care providers, we could provide health care for everyone at an affordable price.

Only a single-payer, publicly financed and privately delivered system can accomplish such a feat.
To implement such a change, the American people will need to send a clear message to our legislators. In order for the people to speak with a clear voice they must grow wise to the propaganda that has distracted and divided them in the past.

• For instance, is providing health care to everyone a communist plot or simply a good idea that appeals to everyone of good will?

• Do we understand that as in Canada, where most of the care is delivered by private physicians, a single-payer system here would give everyone his choice of privately practicing physicians and hospitals?

• Do we allow the pharmaceutical industry to hold us hostage with exorbitant prices or do we group-negotiate with them like the Veterans Administration, who gets medicines for 40 percent less?

• Do we accept the mantra that raising taxes is always a negative, or do we look at the bottom line that shows that after eliminating premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc., most of us will pay less than they do now?

• Do we accept the lies about waiting lines causing premature deaths in other countries or examine the facts that show their medical outcomes are no worse than ours while their elderly live longer and their infants are healthier?

• Do we accept that the loss of a job means you lose your medical insurance and go bankrupt, or do we provide a system like the rest of the industrialized world where employment is not connected to health insurance, and being stuck in a dead-end job because of “health benefits” is no longer necessary?

• Do we remember that the discoveries of penicillin and the polio vaccine were made by men driven by the love of science and humanity rather than the pursuit of wealth as the free market advocates would have us believe?

• Do we accept the notion that the government can’t do anything right or let it be the insurance company with a 3 percent (Medicare) overhead or stay with Blue Cross and Aetna and their 20 percent overhead, multimillion dollar CEOs and “pre-existing conditions?”

Even now, the medical insurance industry is hard at work to control the dialogue concerning health-care reform in this country. Any discussion that leaves out single-payer will, in essence, leave out middle America. The choice is ours, but the longer we delay the more we suffer.

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Davidson is a partner in Lebanon Cardiology Associates.

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Thank you Dr. Davidson for this letter which so eloquently points out objections and answers to these objections regarding Single Payer, Guaranteed Health Care For All!!

Kate Loving Shenk
http://www.nursingcareertransformation.com

Calming River After The Storm!

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:41:05 +0000

The Mighty Conestoga!

The river that runs by my house is a wonderful ever changing kaleidoscope of color, light, energy, fluid movement and symmetry!

Don’t Let The Lake-Like Appearance Fool You!!

Because this is a River, not a Creek, but a Great River That Speaks It’s Own Lyrical Language!!

Thank you dear river for proving that your ever omnipresence is revered. Thank you dear river for showing us that your beauty is a joy forever!

Kate Loving Shenk

Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me–see privacy notice on my website!http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html

After The Fog–The Flood!!

admin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:07:12 +0000

Ulysses Surveys The Mighty Mighty River!!

The Fog Was So Beautiful, It Then Transformed To This:

This Is The River That Runs By My House, And I Love It!!

The Drama Of Nature Is A Continuing Saga!!

Kate Loving Shenk

A Beautiful Foggy River

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:02:32 +0000

I was staggered by the gorgeous river yesterday!!

Here’s another beautiful shot!!

And another!!

And Mukunda was in Heaven!!!

The River that runs by my house will be the focus of many beautiful
nature wonders as the days go on!!

Late Autumn is a wonderful time of year!!!

Kate Loving Shenk

“Pray Rain Journal” Revisited

admin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:23:27 +0000

My Pray Rain Journal

Lately, I’ve been writing articles and ignoring journaling of any kind
whether it be Pray Rain (by Jeannette Maw) or Morning Pages (by Julia Cameron) or the good old fashioned write what I feel which
invariably turns to bitching and complaining, and no longer is enticing or productive.

The Pray Rain Journaling process is diametrically opposed
to the normal journaling experience that many of us have.

First of all, you think of things you want to accomplish or manifest, and you write in the Pray Rain Journal (PRJ) “pretending” that you have it, or how you will feel when you get it or manifest it. The more vivid the detail, and the better you feel as you do it, the better the chance this thing you imagine will come to pass.

The more joyous you feel, the greater the probability you will achieve your desire or vision.

I’ve wondered about the Pray Rain (PRJ) technique where you write optimistically and positively about what it is you want to achieve. Doubt crept in at one point, making me feel like I had a frontal lobotomy because I didn’t feel like I was honestly expressing what was on my mind.

So I’ve been journal-less and feeling the effects. Where are my best friends, the pen and notebook, the life line to true balance and joy?

My computer crashed recently and I lost my hard drive. But I have a hard copy of the PRJ, by Jeannette Maw.

I decided to read it again.

Maybe I am off base with the frontal lobotomy metaphor?

Maybe I can write optimistically about what I want to achieve plus write my true feelings with a counter statement of positive outcome in the face of fear?

But write I must and the PRJ is my choice with a few experiments to see if I can be joyfully honest all at once!

The Morning Page method by Julia Cameron is wonderful, too, where you write 3 pages of longhand immediately upon arising every morning. But night shift confuses the rhythm of this–for now. The neat thing is that you are able to place uncensored thoughts upon the page before you have time to think in any normal way. I’d say the right brain predominates throughout this very profound and insightful exercise.

Back to the journal page I go!! And what a blessing that will be!!

Kate Loving Shenk

The Pedometer Barometer

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:40:35 +0000

Old Style Pedometer

I love my pedometer!

America On The Move has come to the hospital where I work, and all my friends
as well as myself are getting free tiny pedometers that attach to our waist bands
and measures every step we take.

Over the years, I’ve entered similar programs. One pedometer fell off in my pasture
land, only to show up a year later, rusted and disabled.

I remember getting another pedometer that measured ten steps for every one.

After that I just let go of the idea of ever having one again.

This pedometer is perfect! It does the job it was designed to do which is to count my
steps, one stride at a time.

Since my choice and goal is to walk the Pacific Crest Trail, which surprisingly is only 10,000
steps a day from 11/16 to 12/28, I need to hustle to get those steps in, nevertheless.

10,000 steps measures five miles.

My dogs and I walk 2-4 miles a day. I often take 7,000 steps at work, and lately at home,
as well.

If I have to go to the other end of the hospital or my home to complete a task, I do so
happily now, knowing that my steps are getting me closer to my goal.

What is my goal?

Besides completing the Pacific Trail hike, getting my free pedometer, and rumors have it,
getting a $30.00 bonus, I like the idea of moving my body actively, getting up and moving,
stepping and dancing my way through the day.

So do all my friends who have a pedometer. This is where the fun begins.

I was talking to a fellow pedometer owner last night, and we spontaneously broke into steps,
dancing to a tune that was transmitted through the hospital sound system.

Another of my fellow pedometer owners is a stalwart Republican. I admittedly represent the
other side of the spectrum, politically speaking.

It would seem that I have nothing in common with this woman, and the 2008 election certainly
accentuated our opposing viewpoints.

Then we both became obsessed with our pedometers. We chose the same trail. When she
told me she slept with her pedometer, so that when she gets up in the middle of the night to
go to the bathroom and those steps are measured, too, I loved the zaniness of that confession!

So now we have something we can talk about without feeling the need to wring each others neck!

The pedometer creates common ground between people who ordinarily would have nothing
to do with each other!

It all began when I took my dogs to the Vet and asked the receptionist if my dog Ulysses was over
weight.

She instructed me to look straight down upon his standing body and if I saw obvious bulges,
then I would have to take him on more walks.

So I looked down at him, and saw a protruding bulge on both sides of his body. I knew then that I would
be taking Ule and my other dog Mukunda on daily disciplined walks.

About one week into our new routine, a four mile walk along the Mill Stream in what is called the
(Lancaster) County Park, I heard about the pedometer and thought that recording steps would
add a little excitement to what I had vowed to do for my dogs, and also for myself.

Five days of walking melted those bulges off both dogs.

My bulges vanish ever so slightly every day.

I notice we all sleep better; Mukunda in particular loves his food more than he ever did
(if that is possible)!!

I take deeper and more conscious breaths.

Ulysses snores more contentedly when he sleeps.

Muki used to jump in and out of the bed all night long but now he stays in one place for
hours, as we all snuggle together on these wonderful long winter’s nights, as the days
grow shorter and the nights grow longer.

And we vow to reject a sedentary life this year, one day at a time.

The pedometer serves as a motivation tool to keep moving throughout the day and night.
The America On The Move web site allows me to log the number of steps I take every day,
then shows where I am along the Pacific Crest Trail. Right now, I’m hanging out at Death Valley.
Soon I will arrive at Crater Lake. By December 28th, I should have completed the hike.

The trail map is a fun way for my imagination to play, but the exercise and activity that my
pedometer inspires is creating a daily walking and running habit, connecting me to people
and giving all of us a lifestyle we want to maintain.

Research shows that pedometer accuracy can vary widely, depending on the make and
model.

I am happy to report that the America On The Move pedometer ranks #2 as one of the best
pedometers on the market.

I can hardly wait to tell all my friends!!

Kate Loving Shenk

Commentary Two by Kate Loving Shenk

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:38:33 +0000

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/blog/kate-loving-shenk/2008/11/20/commentary-two-kate-loving-shenk

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Here is Commentary Two. My computer crashed a few weeks ago, and we got 2 Macs for the price of one, which put me back a few weeks. BUT, I am happy to say, each wonderful task learned with a Mac is a milestone in my Internet Marketing Learning Curve.

This video is a Congressional Testimony given to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives to persuade politicians to pass HB 1660 and SB 300, a single payer, guaranteed health care for all legislation.

If Pennsylvania passes it, other states will follow.

Blessings to all,

Kate Loving Shenk