By Colleen Pulley
It is a fact that as life passes, we gain more perspective, or at least we should. Let me give you an example of this.
When we got married, Leland and I committed that the primary focus of our marriage was to return to our Heavenly Father, with our family. For fourteen years I was blessed by being a full-time wife, mother, and homemaker. I am grateful every day that I was able to do this.
The time arrived that I wanted to start my nursing work. My family supported this desire. I had studied nursing before marriage and became a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Now more classes were required to get my two-year Registered Nurse (RN) degree, while working as an LPN. Thereafter, I took more classes and earned my Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN). I had always wanted to do intensive care nursing in a hospital setting.
I was fortunate to have a long and fulfilling career in nursing. I started out in the adult trauma unit. After fifteen years I moved into pediatric trauma/ICU. After six years I went into the neonatal intensive care unit.
I was at the top of my game by the time I hit my fifties. I was a role model to the younger nurses, a good educator, well respected, and had certain expectations of where I was going. I loved what I was doing. Because I was working in the neonatal intensive care unit, my expectation was that if I had my health, I could work until I retired.
Many of my colleagues and I were the charge nurses, worked as the resuscitation nurses, or were educators. The oldest among us was seventy-two. I turned sixty-four and my perspective readjusted. I decided that by sixty-six I would drop being fulltime, and go to two days a week, and I would not retire until age seventy-two.
When I was sixty-six, everything changed. In December I had worked Wednesday and Thursday nights. On Friday night, I took two of my granddaughters to the mall for shopping. When we got home, I was sitting in a rocking chair. When I got up, a sharp pain went down my back. In the next few days, I went to the doctor and had some tests done. The problems were arthritis, scoliosis. and some disk damage in my spine done at work years earlier. Now I had to have emergency back surgery. In the end I ended up with nerve damage to my right leg. This required me to use a cane while walking any distance beyond around the house. I was initially hopeful that with physical therapy, I would return to nursing. This did not happen, and I was never able to return to the career I had enjoyed for thirty-two years.
Fortunate for me, my career was not the center of my life. It was awesome, but it was not the only thing that defined who I was, and where I was going in life. Over the years, my husband and I had set a course, and charted our road map, to return to Heavenly Father.
Yes, I had to adapt to changes in what I could do physically, but I am grateful that my road map was there to be my compass. Besides, I still had marriage, children and grandchildren, a good house, reasonably good health, true religion, political freedom, and other blessings in life.
The hope is that your identity and self-worth isn’t based on a career, how much money you have, or what your address is. You are more than these temporary things. You are worth so much more. You were created for greatness. You are a son or daughter of God, and He loves you.
I started by talking about perspectives, so let me end with this. It has been over five years since I left nursing. Life has continued to go on. I still walk with a cane outside the house, and sometimes use a walker for longer walks. I have time to ponder all the things experienced during my earth life. I am grateful for all the successes, as well as the trials that I went through. Remember, it is not that you fail at times, and get knocked down. It is whether you pull yourself back up and continue following the path that leads onward and upward to success and happiness. Most important, your road map is taking you back to God.
Just something to think about. Colleen
Key Words – perspective, Heavenly Father, intensive care nursing, back surgery, road map, adapt to changes, marriage, children and grandchildren, self-worth, success, happiness
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