[This updated post first appeared March, 2009 – Special thanks to the RMH Alum site for nurturing memories]

A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,…
   -Walt Whitman (1819-1892) from "I Sing The Body Electric"

    I grew up, like some of our readers, near the Pacific, "throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves" and now have the great chance to do the same, once again. This time it is by the Atlantic, where I encounter the waves with my tiny granddaughter and wonder what storms she will meet.
   Most caregivers live their careers between the coasts, confronting and healing the waves of pain that wash over others. Along the way, I wonder how many of us pause to reflect upon our memories of work?
   Each of us lives so much of our lives in our jobs rather than at home. When our work reaches its end or reaches, what will you remember? Will you recall the joys of working alongside friends? Which patients will stand out in your recollection?
   When I was a little boy playing by the ocean, I dreamed of one day doing important things. What I think of as important now is different from what I conjured in my boyhood imagination. As Whitman writes:

   From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in
      the mist,
   From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,…
   From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
   From such as now they start the scene revisiting,..

   Behind closed eyes it was easy to revisit my first days as a hospital leader. I see the associate nursing director, Marian Hamm, greeting me in a hallway at Toledo's former Riverside Hospital in 1975.
   Now, in the blink of an eye, she retired, edged into illness & died at 82. What Marian and I discussed in her later years was not the daily census or staff morale. Instead, we reminisced  about characters who amazed us; about battles with doctors; about disputes and scandals; how we handled several emergencies, and, best, what made us laugh.
   Most of all, we revel in the fact that we took our power and used it to influence the lives of others for the better through cultures of loving care. I am so grateful we made that choice and changed the lives of thousands. 
   One day, if you are lucky, you will have the time to reflect on your confrontations with the waves that informed your work. 
   Meanwhile, as Whitman wrote,

   I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,… A reminiscence sing.

   What specifics will you remember most about your work life?

-Erie Chapman

Photo by Erie