I’m in transition mode, preparing to leap into the unknown world of self-employment. As I wrestle with how to promote myself, how to negotiate contracts, what to focus my business on, etc., etc., I sometimes find myself getting tied in knots.
It’s time to slow down a bit and focus on what the transition is teaching (and re-teaching) me:
Emergency rooms make me cranky.
Lack of sleep makes me even more cranky.
So… after 5 hours in the emergency room in the middle of the night with Julie, who broke the growth plate in her wrist (the part of the bone that’s busy growing in adolescents) in yet another soccer-related injury, I’m not exactly a barrel of laughs today.
Here’s the thing… why oh WHY has nobody figured out how to make an emergency room (and especially the waiting room) a reasonably pleasant (or at least comfortable and somewhat soothing) space to wait in? There are a lot of creative people in this world – why haven’t we invested some of that creative energy into better designs for emergency rooms and hospitals in general?
Basically everyone sitting in an emergency room is under some kind of stress. Nobody WANTS to sit in a crowded uncomfortable room for five hours, waiting to spend five minutes with an over-worked doctor who’s just trying to survive until the end of the shift. Nobody wants to sit in those uncomfortable, straight-backed vinyl-covered chairs, staring at non-descript white walls plastered with ugly stop-smoking posters five years past their prime, craning their necks to see the tiny TV dangling somewhere close to the ceiling in the farthest corner of the room.
And while I’m venting – what’s up with the system that treats a patient like one of the cattle, shuffled through a corral shute from one nursing station to the next, answering the very same list of questions to three different people? Is there no more efficient, people-centred system than that? Last year, I sat with my mother-in-law and father-in-law in the emergency room, after my father-in-law had made a few dozen visits to the same ER in less than a month’s time, and I wanted to scream when I saw the look of pure exhaustion on my mother-in-law’s face when she had to answer the same questions she’d answered the other countless times she’d been there. You have a frickin’ computer sitting right in front of you, people! WHY didn’t anyone record the answers the last hundred times they were asked? It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take a Phd in human psychology to know that too many questions when you’re under stress can tip you over the edge.
Here’s my theory on the whole thing. We have let the industrial revolution shape too many of our spaces and our systems and we’re still a little lost trying to figure out how to dig ourselves out from underneath the frameworks that have turned us into consumers and producers and forms and problems-to-be-solved rather than people.
We have designed hospitals like factories, thinking more about production, efficiency, and TQM (don’t even get me started on that) than about people and families and humanity. We have developed health care systems that are less about health than they are about medicine; less about people than they are about systems; less about healing than they are about bandaids. We make decisions based on what costs less, what will pacify the most number of voters, what appears the most efficient to our funders, and what will push the highest number of people through the conveyor belt that is our public services. (I could go on a similar rant about the education system, but I’ll spare you that one.)
I think it’s time to rise up, people. I think it’s time to stop the conveyor belt. I think it’s time to stop and look around at the victims of these flawed systems and figure out what’s best for THEM rather than what’s best for the clunky machinery of our systems. I think it’s time for compassion, intuitive thinking, people-centred decision-making, and LOVE.
I think it’s time to apply a bit more of our Sophia wisdom to all of this! Do I hear an amen?
We are back from vacation, settling back into day-to-day life as we prepare for return-to-school season. I have another month of work and then I’ll be setting off on my new adventure in self-employment. (I’m already getting some contract offers even before I’ve had a chance to “hang my shingle”, so I’m rather hopeful that the transition will be a smooth one.)
Our vacation was just what the doctor ordered. We started with a relaxing week at a rented cabin at Albert Beach where we were surrounded by visiting friends and family. Nearly each day brought someone new to our little temporary home and we enjoyed everyone who showed up. (By the end, every available soft surface had a body sleeping on it.) And then we ended with a short camping trip to another beach where we hung out with family (but fewer of them) once again.
Oh how good a vacation can be for body and soul! Last night, after it all ended and most of the unpacking was done, I sat down for a quiet moment and just soaked in all of the goodness and happiness and contentment that came from a week in a beautiful place surrounded by people I love. Yup, cheesy but true.
Vacation affords a person with the opportunity to actually stop and notice the myriad of sacred moments that often pass us by. Here are just a few of the ones I experienced this past week.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few more of our vacation photos.
I’m getting ready for a lazy, luxurious week at a cabin with my family, so my thoughts are only dipping into the shallow end of the pool these days. No profound insights, no soapboxes – just easy, sweet gratitude for all that is good in the world.
Here’s are a few of the things I’m savouring this summer, and a few that I’m hoping to savour next week:
As I look over the list (and this is only a partial list of all the goodness in my life), I realize that most of the things I’m savouring are the connections I’ve made with people in my life. I am so blessed to be the recipient of such great love and friendship.
What are YOU savouring? (And, yes, that IS the way we spell savour in Canada!)
Maybe you’re ready for that
REALLY BIG THING
you’ve been wanting to do.
Maybe it’s time to
write a book
learn to sing
take a trip to India
become a public speaker
open a pet store
call yourself an artist
study zoology
teach children how to dance.
Maybe you don’t have to be afraid anymore.
Maybe the old stories you’ve been telling yourself –
you’re not thin enough
you won’t make enough money
people won’t take you seriously
you need to have a Masters degree
you’re not talented enough
– just aren’t true after all.
Maybe those people who are trying to stop you
are just trying to protect you
but maybe their fear doesn’t have to be your fear.
Maybe some of those things you’re afraid of
really will happen, and you’ll
fall on your face
embarrass yourself
lose money
fail.
But maybe you’re strong enough to survive those thing
and you’ll learn from them
and the next time you’re brave enough to try
you’ll succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
Maybe there are people waiting for exactly the kind of
wisdom
art
compassion
songs
encouragement
teaching
you have to offer and they can’t move forward
until you share it with them.
Maybe there is someone who is hurting
and the thing that you have to offer
is just what will heal them.
Maybe there is someone whose world has turned ugly
and the painting you have been longing to paint
will point them toward beauty and hope
Maybe you have the power to make someone smile.
Maybe you have the answer to someone’s longing.
Maybe you have the compassion to make someone feel loved.
Maybe you have the courage to change someone’s life.
Maybe God has given you
all of the gifts that you need
to make that
REALLY BIG THING
happen
and S/he’s just waiting (and longing) to see you do it.
Maybe you can fly.
my daughter and niece learning to fly