"God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame." ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

       

         This is my last semester before completing my B.S.N. at the first of August, if I can survive two more months! Somewhere in the distance I am sure I hear the theme song to Rocky echoing...What I have learned is tremendous. It has been difficult, certainly, but well worth the struggle. 

       Hopefully, this fall I will begin work on my masters. It is then that strains of the theme song to Chariots of Fire will began to play gently in the background of my life, as I run in slow motion down the beach, for the next eighteen months! Hmmm, this actually is a funny mental picture since I could not run around the block without gasping for breath and needing supplemental oxygen! Ironically, however, I can't wait... I think?

       I am a true nerd at heart. I really enjoy school which is why a Masters in Nursing Education degree fits me perfectly. Plus the fact that I have home-schooled my children and prepared each of them to enter college. I guess hindsight truly is always 20/20!

       I read a quote last night from, What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010 by Richard Bolles that epitomizes career satisfaction. Bolles states that God gives us each a unique talent that only we can perform, He guides us toward this talent, which He has lodged in us, through our hearts. This talent usually gives us the greatest pleasure while exercising it and it is usually the one that, when we use it, causes us to lose all sense of time!"

       Wow! I have done that...I have been so involved in moments at work that I lost all sense of time, while at the moment felt incredible peace and satisfaction. I am working, but there is a sense of ultimate fulfillment and sheer joy. A knowledge that for that moment in time, I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing. It reminds me of the Bible verse in Esther chapter four, verse fourteen, " And who knows but that you have come to this position for such a time as this?" For such a time as this, indeed...

       Consequently, for all nurses out there, I encourage you to look for these moments. Find your mission, your true calling, and work will seem less like drudgery and more like your gift which you can hand back to the Father some day with a deep sense of joy and satisfaction.

       Does this mean that I know completely where I am going and what I will be doing? No, but it means I have a vision and a desire which I will follow with God's help. Look for your gift. He gave you something unique only you can bring to this profession if you will...

                                               ~ Remember ~

       "What we are is God's gift to us.  What we become is our gift to God."  ~Eleanor Powell

He conquers who endures. ~Persius

 hospital corridor by Boliston   

       While visiting around the other night, I happened upon the doorstep of a quite inspiring soon-to-be nurse. He is currently finishing his BSN and his wife is a pediatric icu nurse. He has posted a piece called, Abstract Thinking. It is phenomenal! Here is an excerpt.

 
I bring a multi-disciplinary point of view that has always centered about pediatrics and holism. As an older student I bring life experience, world experience, parenting experience. I have seen things, done things, experienced things that help me to meet people where they are; to respect, if not understand different points of view. My previous clinical doctorate affords me the essential basic skills of assessment, diagnosis, and perhaps most importantly, critical thinking.

       This was written in an effort to obtain an externship. If he didn't get it, it is definitely their loss. Feel free to visit him at Nurse XY. You will be inspired, I promise!