my grandma was a nurse. i have many a memory of her nursing skills. boy, oh boy do i ever!
when i was six i was roller skating on our not so smooth driveway. okay, actually it was very loose rocks and steep too.
but i loved to skate.
one fateful day i biffed it good. i had rocks all over in my knee. it wasn't pretty. i can't remember the pain but i remember there were a lot of tears and it looked real bad.
my grandma happened to be at my house and i needed a nurse.
was i happy she was there? heck no!
she took a laundry scrub brush to my knee! it hurt like the dickens!
my mom and my grandma could see that i couldn't take care of this wound on my own. it would have been far too painful and was, quite beyond my six year old ability to take care of.
no one in their right mind would have put gobs of Neosporin on a bandage, slapped it on and call it good.
the pain at the time was bad. leaving it would have made it far worse to deal with later.
in our lives we get hurt quite often. the problem we have though is that more than we realize, they are not wounds we can see. but! they still need attention! the sooner the better.
these wounds can come from failure, bad choices, abuse, broken promises,....etc. emotional, spiritual, mental wounds come from a variety of experiences. but they are real, real wounds.
when our feelings are hurt sometimes the best thing to do is to feel that emotion and deal with it.
in our society we are often told to "buck up", "shake it off", "let it blow over", etc. we tell our kids to do this.
it is not up to us, who view the situation from the outside looking in, to tell someone to get over it, to stop crying, move on, etc. we have zero clue how that experience has effected them. no one is the same. (this has been hard for me to accept. i have wanted to be able to handle things as well (as i think) others are handling it or have in the past.)
what we can do is let them cry, let them talk, listen and try to understand. if you don't understand, don't pretend like you do. you can still validate them by telling them you don't understand and that it sounds awful.
sometimes that is what a nurse does. each bad thing is like a rock. we need to help them to come out by letting them experience and feel their pain. don't help them cover it up too quick.
there have been so many people who have given me permission to take the time i need and take care of my wounds. this permission has been confusing. i was in shock. i didn't understand what i needed. (i'm still learning this too) doesn't a bandage make it all better? won't it just go away?! this is why the support i had was so crucial. just like when i was six, this is beyond me. that is okay. we all need help sometimes. our experiences help us to be able to help others later on.
right now and over the past eleven months i've needed a nurse. i am amazed at the different forms a nurse comes in. my kids, my mom, an inspired friend, a passerby, my husband. we often underestimate ourselves. do you know the difference you make? yes, you? do you know how you've helped me? while i've been hurting with pain i can't see but is as real and worse than the rocks in my knee, you've been there.
i will accept help. i will be grateful for it.
when i was six i was roller skating on our not so smooth driveway. okay, actually it was very loose rocks and steep too.
but i loved to skate.
one fateful day i biffed it good. i had rocks all over in my knee. it wasn't pretty. i can't remember the pain but i remember there were a lot of tears and it looked real bad.
my grandma happened to be at my house and i needed a nurse.
was i happy she was there? heck no!
she took a laundry scrub brush to my knee! it hurt like the dickens!
my mom and my grandma could see that i couldn't take care of this wound on my own. it would have been far too painful and was, quite beyond my six year old ability to take care of.
no one in their right mind would have put gobs of Neosporin on a bandage, slapped it on and call it good.
the pain at the time was bad. leaving it would have made it far worse to deal with later.
in our lives we get hurt quite often. the problem we have though is that more than we realize, they are not wounds we can see. but! they still need attention! the sooner the better.
these wounds can come from failure, bad choices, abuse, broken promises,....etc. emotional, spiritual, mental wounds come from a variety of experiences. but they are real, real wounds.
when our feelings are hurt sometimes the best thing to do is to feel that emotion and deal with it.
in our society we are often told to "buck up", "shake it off", "let it blow over", etc. we tell our kids to do this.
it is not up to us, who view the situation from the outside looking in, to tell someone to get over it, to stop crying, move on, etc. we have zero clue how that experience has effected them. no one is the same. (this has been hard for me to accept. i have wanted to be able to handle things as well (as i think) others are handling it or have in the past.)
what we can do is let them cry, let them talk, listen and try to understand. if you don't understand, don't pretend like you do. you can still validate them by telling them you don't understand and that it sounds awful.
sometimes that is what a nurse does. each bad thing is like a rock. we need to help them to come out by letting them experience and feel their pain. don't help them cover it up too quick.
there have been so many people who have given me permission to take the time i need and take care of my wounds. this permission has been confusing. i was in shock. i didn't understand what i needed. (i'm still learning this too) doesn't a bandage make it all better? won't it just go away?! this is why the support i had was so crucial. just like when i was six, this is beyond me. that is okay. we all need help sometimes. our experiences help us to be able to help others later on.
right now and over the past eleven months i've needed a nurse. i am amazed at the different forms a nurse comes in. my kids, my mom, an inspired friend, a passerby, my husband. we often underestimate ourselves. do you know the difference you make? yes, you? do you know how you've helped me? while i've been hurting with pain i can't see but is as real and worse than the rocks in my knee, you've been there.
i will accept help. i will be grateful for it.
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