Here and There

I went to a conference last week. It was a boot camp for Acute Care Nurse Practitioner’s.  The focus was on critical care, on really sick patients, on working in the ICU.  It was at Vanderbilt.

It was good to be there: to hear those lectures, sit in those chairs, walk those grounds, be among those people. I felt professionally revived in so many ways. I felt the passion for my work returning to me. I felt excited again to be who I am and do what I do.  It definitely started some wheels turning.

I was able to attend church while I was there, able to see so many people who are so very dear to me, to receive hugs and kisses and blessings. It was so very good to be there: to sit in those pews, sing those songs, walk those halls, be among those people. I felt spiritually revived in so many ways.

I talked with so many dear friends. I talked with so many sweet people that I love so dearly; countless people who have so deeply enriched my life. I talked with my dear friend Harold, it took me some time to get to him, but when I did, oh how he filled my heart. He said the sweetest words to me: “you know you just belong here”. His words struck me, moved me. I smiled, squeezed his shoulder, walked away.

Belong here.

You know you just belong here.

Belong.

Here.

Isn’t that what we all desperately long for? A place to belong, to fit, to feel at peace. Having moved 7 times in the last few years I know the power of that in a way that I didn’t understand before. Belonging has the ability to give one value, to validate their life.

I have changed in exponential ways the past few years. The person I was in the fall of 2007 is not the person that I am today. I am better for the changes, I am a differnt person. There was a time when I wasn’t sure who I was, what I was, what I wanted, where I wanted to go. I have a resolute understanding of those things now. Life at times gives you difficult challenges, tasks, and bends in the road for the purpose of molding you. I once said that I felt like life was just happening to me and I was just a participant, but I realize it was during those times that I was allowing God to work in my life to mold me. Those were times when I didn’t have the energy to participate and so I yielded and was molded by Him for Him.

The room that I sat in at the conference had a big mirror in the back. A Vanderbilt logo was on it and it had a slogan. I read it multiple times every day. “It’s who we are.” Funny how marketing propaganda can work to encourage and excite you.