We do not become healers.
We came as healers. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become storytellers.
We came as carriers of the stories
we and our ancestors actually lived. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become artists. We came as artists. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not become writers.. dancers.. musicians.. helpers.. peacemakers. We came as such. We are.
Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not learn to love in this sense.
We came as Love. We are Love.
Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.

~Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

These wonderful words of wisdom by Clarissa Pinkola Estes speaks to my heart. I think about my long and distinguished career in nursing of 47 years and the versatility it has afforded me. My first nuring job was on a hospital  oncology unit, then in community nursing to include home health, hospice care, palliative care, program development, education, leadership, and Mission integration. Pre-nursing, I worked evenings as a psychiatric aide in an inpatient facility while in high school.  My first job in CA was as a nurses aide in a skilled nursing facility. Throughout it all there has been countless ways to bring creativity into the art and science of nursing.

Florence Nightengale expressed this so beautifully, "Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit?"

As we journey through life, we learn through experiencing, discovering and living into our calling. Regardless of what we do, Dr Estes sums it up so very well in this one line, "We came as Love. We are Love. 

May we remember who we truly are. 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Watercolor/ink pen by ~liz