Several weeks ago, Charity Singleton graciously featured Pollywog Creek in her "There and Back Again" prompt for the The High Calling community of bloggers. In my inaugural "There and Back Again" post today, I am excited to feature Charity's Wide Open Spaces.
Charity is an excellent writer whose wit and wisdom is always insightful, but even more so as she faces a cancer recurrence and recovers from major surgery. Her "Life is a Highway" post from yesterday is a perfect example. I hope you will click on over and read it for yourself.
Charity writes about a recent experience with being tempted to make excuses after being pulled over for speeding. Though I've yet to face that particular circumstance, I'm well acquainted with the temptation, and several experiences from the past come to mind.
Years ago, as a professional nurse and administrator for a hemodialysis center, I worked hard to set a standard of excellence for the staff as I trained them in both chronic and acute hemodialysis. Motivated by my own tendency toward perfectionism and the praises I received from the medical staff I worked with, even a minor mistake that did not affect patient care in any way was not an option.
Making rounds in the chronic outpatient center one day, the medical director noticed something about one of the patients that I had completely overlooked. He didn't acknowledge my oversight, but I was embarrassed that I had failed to notice something I'd repeatedly taught my staff to be aware of. I was crushed.
I could easily think of a multitude of excuses for my lapse in observation, and the rest of the afternoon I either tried to console myself with those excuses or mentally beat myself up for not being perfect. Though I remained stoic in appearance, I was an emotional wreck.
That day, I had the wisdom - or maybe I was just too miserable - to not go home that way. I walked across the parking lot to the hospital where the medical director was seeing patients, and though he had never thought to blame me, I told him I was responsible and I apologized for my mistake.
That day, I had the wisdom - or maybe I was just too miserable - to not go home that way. I walked across the parking lot to the hospital where the medical director was seeing patients, and though he had never thought to blame me, I told him I was responsible and I apologized for my mistake.
And like Charity, when it was finished I was free.
