Peggy Ann Berry, PhD, MSN, RN, COHN-S, CLE, PLNC, FAAOHN earned her doctorate from University of Cincinnati in 2015. She is a past Graduate Nurse Intern to DOL OSHA, a NIOSH Education and Resource Grant recipient and an American Nurses Foundation Scholar. She is a Founding Fellow with the U. S. Academy of Workplace Bullying, Mobbing, and Abuse and a past Graduate Nurse Intern to OSHA, past Malcolm Baldrige Examiner, and a past senior examiner with The Partnership for Excellence.
Dr. Berry is a member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and the Ohio Nurses Association, as well as past chair and member of the Environmental and Public Health Caucus. Peggy has been advocating for clean air, access to potable water, chemical transparency with fracking solution, and methane regulation by congressional and state visits, press conferences and social media with and for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club, and Mom’s Clean Air Force. In addition to being the LWV Ohio volunteer lobbyist, she has been an environmental advocate since 2012, participating in EPA and OSHA requests for testimony on chemical transparency and Methane New Source Rules, collaborating across many NGOs to promote clean water, air and tillable soil. She has presented and published on the human health effects of workplace bullying, climate change, and migraines.
I am not asking for money on Giving Tuesday. I have deleted hundreds of emails, recycled all the mailed requests, and worked today. I am almost positive you are as annoyed as I am.
But, I will tell you what I have done this year – just the highlights:
I continue to work with People of Petrochemicals Coalition on the steering committee and people power group. Went to a convening in W. Virgina for strategic planning.
I continue to work with Buckeye Environmental Network on Brine. Went to the Ohio State House once for them.
I went to the Ohio State House with Moms Clean Airforce.
I continue to work with Freshwater Future which segued into involvement with Healing Our Waters with the Great Lakes Restoration Bills. When to DC for two days to meet with legislators, went to Rochester NY for a networking event.
I started working with Break Free From Plastics. I worked on their Mutual Aid Program, Went to DC for the US narrative, went to a convening in West Virginia. I continue to work with their narrative team, especially on health effects.
I also work with CIEL and will try to get more healthcare professionals involved in all this work.
And, AHNE – I am working on something there too.
These are the things I remember and most of these activities are weekly meetings, some monthly, some bimonthly. I have periods of inactivity and I hate that. I keep thinking I need to do more but there are only 24 hours in the day.
May you all have a blessed December and a happy New Year.
Have you ever borne a heavy burden for so long that you were weary to the very bone and just longed to throw it off?
HEAVY CHAIN
I am studying chapter one of Isaiah at 2:30am. As I read, I wondered how many of us felt the above statement right now, weary to the very bone. It has been a pervasive weariness, reading the news, watching the politics, seeing the future education and health ramifications from safeguards suspended for “profitability.”
Yes, that was my kind of weary to the bone the first few weeks of the new presidency. That same circus continues with each executive order, with each appointed minion bending to the 2025 Agenda, heaped more weight on my already weary body. And, I understand, I can empathize with, those who cry their anger out on social media, watching, reading, or hearing the latest executive order or laws to suspend regulations because of belief, not science.
And, given the perceived absolute power of billionaires to push their agendas, I finally stepped back, deciding how I can purposely move forward. I am personally examining what I can do to affect change for this world.
I have given up the “weariness.” I am moving forward to what is the one thing I can do to make a difference. First, I intend to take better care of myself. Rest is resistance. Eating nutritious food is resistance. Being with your tribe is resistance. Meditating is resistance. Love is resistance. Respecting someone’s diversity, personhood, and how they want to called is resistance.
Embrace the “one thing” you can do, whether your niche is posting to social media, peaceful demonstrations, or sit-ins, loving unconditionally in soup kitchens or meals-on-wheels, do it. Find your niche. “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17 NIV
Use your voice. DO NOT be dismayed. Be strong and courageous through it.
Now let me write about #health and #wellbeing from a #nurse perspective. As the administration continues to strip or defund agency watchdogs – the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Centers for Disease Control – #healthcareprofessionals will have their hands full, especially from #fenceline communities, living near refineries or chemical plants. Even living downstream or downwind is problematic. That said, it has been problematic for years.
All #nurses or #physicians should be asking these questions of their patients:
Did you grow up near any refinery, polluted area, or a home with leaded paint?
What sort of pollution have you been exposed to?
Have you had any jobs where you were exposed to solvents, heavy metals, fumes, or other toxic material?
How are we going to increase our span of influence to educate and illuminate these ongoing hazards? Write or call you legislators. Educate your neighbors, friends, and patients on these hazards. Talk preventive measures. Champion education going forward. We don’t need continued idiocracy based on beliefs, rumors, or fairytales. WE will need citizen scientists monitoring their communities for contamination.
We will all need to work together to “care for” ourselves mentally and physically as greenhouse gas goals are abandon and our planet becomes more hostile. Then, take that care one step further, care for each other. Community in adversity will keep you strong.
I was having a stressful day. I was traveling. I had reports to write. I had forms to secure. Also, bill out! When you are in business for yourself, you do it all. Sometimes I am right there. Other days, not so much and I was allowing myself to become overwhelmed with the personal stuff surrounding my professional stuff. And, sometimes, it is daunting.
So, I drop in for my last physical therapy appointment (another story for another time). My mind was traveling a lot faster than my feet when I saw the signs on the floor. There was no one in line. Those seated had stressed looks on their faces so I did something others might deem bizarre. I stopped here.
I went to each sign and said “Stop here.” I did that three times. By the time I made it to the appointment check-in, everyone was laughing, the receptionist, the patients in the waiting room, and myself. I needed the laugh and it looked like those around me also needed the laugh.
However, I did something more: I stopped. I became present in the moment instead of planning my next steps, my next powerpoint, my next issue to set myself on fire. I stopped. We all need to do that, to decompress, stop taking ourselves so seriously, so entitled, so too much.
So I stopped. I hope you do too. Stop and smell the crisp air after a rain. Stop and pet your dog or cat, snake, mouse, whatever is your pet. Stop and kiss your spouse. Hug him as it may be the last time as we all get older and there is risks involved every time you let go. Just stop. Be present and mindful so you become your best person.
There are eleven days until 2022 arrives. I have not made any New Year resolutions. After years of making and breaking my resolutions, I have given up that exercise. Very often, I make plans and God just laughs at me. It’s like this, I write a plan for the hours of my day. My desk is cleared. I am ready to start a task and a friend calls, upset, needing comfort and sense-making. I slide into that role, away from the policy I planned to edit and forward to a group on social media. My cat jumps on my desk, systematically knocking small things off (ink pen, swat; sticky note, swish) then he pounces into the desk, scattering the organized folders to the floor. He obviously wants attention (food).
Oscar the Great
The dog looks up at me and sighs. She was sleeping nicely at my feet when his antics started. My phone call ends. I pick up the papers, reorganize them, find the ink pen which rolled under the desk and, sigh, I leave the sticky notes on the floor.
My husband comes to the door asking me to find something for him. He wants to discuss dinner plans or Christmas celebrations. After I find what he was looking for, he goes into the living room, cranks the volume on YouTube “Ancient Aliens.” I breathe deep and ask him to put the headset on. It was a lot easier when I did not work from home. But, I wound not trade hubby, cat, or the dog for anything. They are what makes my life full. I am grateful for them so I do not become so serious in what I do to forget the needs of others – the cat wanting attention, the hubby needing something found, and the dog needing to sleep just a little more.
Oscar and Rosie – lap monsters.
Hold them close as they add clarity to your life. And, in eleven days, we are blessed with the arrival of 2022. Make your life full of what you value. And, buy books to soothe your soul. I bought these while buying coloring books for my granddaughter.
Sunset with the gold colors highlighted by the sun
As I was driving home one late evening, sunset was occurring. For the first time, I noticed how the sun’s rays touch the tips of the trees. I imagined the trees reaching up to touch the last rays of the sun before it set for the evening.
And, I am #grateful. I am grateful to really observe what was happening around me, had been happening all my life, but had not seen it before. I am grateful for this insight below.
Thrive_At_Life: Working Solutions 