Ambulate as needed

After any surgery or any length of time in bed, a patient needs to ambulate prn, to walk as needed, sometimes  with support, on the arm of a nurse or a physical therapist, in order to move, to limber up, to strengthen.  So too must we ambulate our stories, take ’em out for a spin around the block, let them breath and speak.

Ask any nurse, or anyone who has been working in healthcare for some time, to tell you about one of their patients and invariably they will say, “Which one “?

We are all effected by the people in our lives, but I have found, nurses carry with them the stories, the fears, the anguish, the triumphs of those they come to know so intimately, often in a very short amount of time.

The poem You will find it in the stillness is dedicated to all of the premature infants I cared for in the Neonatal ICU and particularly those that did not survive.  The story they hold is from the soul, fleeting and yet enduring.