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| Pink Cows at Sunset – by Gretchen Kelly |
Plans to travel to Chicago over the weekend were suddenly changed last Friday afternoon due to my ailing grandmother’s health and required transfer to the ICU at Mary Greeley Hospital in Ames, IA. The trip was longer than we expected and we decided to break it up by spending the night in Madison also being fortunate enough to meet with friends for dinner at The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company. It was here that I learned the fine art of table top shuffleboard after sharing a flight of at least a dozen beers with my cohorts. The long second leg was completed on Saturday morning and we were pleased to see that Grandma was slowly recovering and that she was being well cared for. I always feel at a loss when visiting people in the hospital as really there is not much one can do as a family member but sit, wait and listen to all that is happening. Most of the time, the “happening” part goes so slowly that it seems like an eternity. We passed the time by admiring the local artist’s artwork that covered the hospital and were particularly drawn to the cow watercolors outside the ICU door. The above picture from Gretchen Kelly provides a similar example that was found while searching the web. My sister, Amy even took time to discuss a lint artist that she knew. Lint!
The pictures really capture what seems to be one of the most serene lifestyles and also continually reminds me of my personal background of living in small-town Iowa for most of my life. There have been several times after this Iowa trip when I felt stressed or upset about something when I said to myself that all I wanted to do was look at cow watercolors…. an escape that never seems to come sometimes…. Of course I have to remind myself that even these seemingly docile animals have there own moments of intense stress and fear. It seems that no matter who or what we are, these are simply normal situations that are inescapable and the best solution is to embrace the good and bad that we all experience in life. Many if not most of those personal times in our lives are just as good if not better than Pink Cows at Sunset!
