the bravest thing

What is the bravest thing you've ever done?

If you're a healthcare provider, courage is sometimes required just to get through the day. Emergencies arise. People depend on you. Your knowledge and expertise may make the difference between life and death for your patient. More than a couple of times, I've pulled over at the scene of an accident before an ambulance could be summoned. I've performed CPR in the front seat of a patient's pick-up when he went into cardiac arrest before he could get into my office. I've ventilated a newborn premie in the back of an ambulance for three hours on the way to the hospital.

"Be brave my heart.

Have courage my soul."

~www.weheartit.com~

Friends comment about the courage it must have taken to run a makeshift clinic in the African bush for a week without electricity or running water. To make a house call in the middle of the night to a patient with a loaded rifle next to his bed. To take a drill to a patient's skull.

The thing is, that kind of thing didn't require courage, the way I see it. It was all part of my job. I trained for years to handle situations like these. It didn't take bravery, as much as practice and resolve. You don't think of yourself as a hero or a god when you're just doing the job you pledged to do.

"Courage is grace under pressure."

~Ernest Hemingway~

Still...the work of the healer can be scary. Problems arise that you can't anticipate or prepare for. That's when courage kicks in. When you're asked to sign the DNR order for a patient you can't save. When you have to confront a colleague about a mistake he made. When the mother dies during childbirth, but the baby survives. 

It is the difficult conversation, the tough confrontation, the tragic loss that uncover real courage.

"Courage is found in

unlikely places."

~J.R.R. Tolkien~

So, what is the bravest thing you've done? Have you comforted a sobbing child? Rescued a puppy? Forgiven an enemy?

Each of us is summoned differently. Where do we find the courage?

"You never know how strong you are

until being strong is the only choice you have."

~Bob Marley~

jan