My final reflection paper on my Globalization 420 class this semester.  Talk about an eye opener of a class!  Wowser folks, we live in a different world today and it effects us all.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.    Susan Fullmer MDS 420 - Globalization Final Reflection 4/26/2019 Final Reflection: Understanding Your Place in a Globalized World In the beginning of this semester we were told to write a paper about an experience we have had in which cultural differences played a crucial role.  I wrote about living in Venezuela in my early twenties.  It was my first real experience with cultural differences.  I loved the people and gradually I learned to love the culture.  But in the beginning, it was such a shock to see how different everything was from the food, to the customs, to the language.  In a way, what I felt was a microcosm of the fear and incompatibilities some people feel towards others who are...

My mother loved sunflowers.  I will forever think of her when I see them.  A truly sweet memory from an otherwise complicated relationship.  This is the tapestry that hung in her entry hall and now gifted to a granddaughter. I love you mom.

While taking care of my mom in her last days of life, these are the questions I would ask myself from time to time.  Is there anything left unsaid? Is there anything left undone? I continue to get the same intuitive answer. Everything is done. The one message I got from Spirit this morning is, “Enjoy your family.”  That's it. That's all I'm supposed to do today. At last, I feel ready for this. No more taking care of everything.  No more fixing anything. I will be helpful and kind. I will catch up on the lives of family members that I have not seen in a long time.  The family is gathering. But there's nothing I have to do. I have done my work. And now, I will feel the joy of being with my family in this sacred place during this sacred time.  Whatever their agendas maybe, this is mine and I am at peace.

Mom passed on January 15, 2019 from complications of ALS.  I traveled out of state to be with her and my family this past year and more frequently in the months before her death.  As a nurse I was able to care for her and teach my stepfather to care for her so she could remain at home as was their wish.  I was also able to help coordinate hospice and other services they needed. It was a team effort that helped me feel closer to my parents and to my family. My mom and I had, shall we say, a complicated relationship.  I am pleased and at peace that I was able to get enough healing under my belt during the past decade or so, to be able to approach her and the difficult situation that is the dying process without agendas, anger or fear.  I simply was present. The last days were difficult and neither my father (I never call him step) nor I got much sleep as we worked around the clock to keep her comfortable.  There wasn’t much time for writing or anything ...

Shinny new IT wizardry for me.  I’m typing on a portable keyboard connected to my phone.  Why would I be doing such a thing you may ask? Well, let me tell you.  I’m soon to check off a whopper of an item on my Bucket List. I’m going to Europe this summer for the first time!  Nearly five years ago when I started back to school at age 54 to get my first Bachelor’s degree (which I will get this December!), I did it for a very short list of reasons - three to be exact.  And one of them was travel. I mostly had what I needed in life, but the one thing I never seemed to have enough of was money for travel. Big and small. Near and far. I want to see and experience it all!   Now, in addition, I also have the knowledge that I love to write.  (Didn’t know that’s what school would bring to me as well, but there you go)  So, I can’t stop myself. I will be writing my way across Europe. I know, it’s been done already. Many times. I even have a paper...

I work full time at Boise State University and I am a student there as well.  In other words, I spend a lot of time on campus. Which I love, don’t get me wrong.  One of the things I like most about that is there is always something going on. Yesterday, on my lunch hour,  I went to a lecture by Dr. Olga Goulko entitled Colloidal Crystals, Quasicrystals, Fluid-Fluid Transitions, and the Entropic Bond.  I found myself in a strange new world called the, “Engineering Building”. Even the people seated in the auditorium had a distinct energy that I had never been in before.  Physically, there were hardly any similarities in the group. All ages, maybe a fifth of them were women, and every kind of dress and walk of life you could imagine. I didn’t hardly understand a word that was said, but during the question and answer period after the presentation it was evident that the audience knew exactly what she had said.  Was I the only one that was completely lost? ...

The unwinding has begun.  Ancient chains unbound.