Planting Seeds…

I had the day off from work yesterday and I went for a ride in the foothills. I took my camera and took lots of pictures. The hillsides are a bright, Kelly green with the first wildflowers sprinkled here and there. It was a beautiful day, with mild temperatures, bright sunshine and the most glorious, wispy clouds in the sky.

Days like that, in February, always make me think of spring. I think I like spring because it is a time of renewal. The earth looks new again, with flowers blooming and leaves reappearing magically on the trees.

I always think of planting a garden, putting seeds in the ground, watering them, and watching a tiny plant sprout through the rich brown dirt.

Spring is a time of new chances, too. Things that I thought about doing last year at this time are possible again. I didn’t plant seeds last year but, the excitement related to planting seeds and watching them grow is back again. Last year is gone, this year is here and my chance is here again, too. I can “seize the day” and realize the dream I had last year, making it a reality after all.

I have tried to plant seeds all my life. Not all of them were planted in the ground. As far as I am concerned, every affirmation, every scintilla of praise, every kind word that I gave to my children was a seed I planted. A little praise, when watered and nurtured, can turn into a healthy sense of self-esteem. I haven’t limited my seed planting to my family, either. More than once, I didn’t even know the seed had germinated until the plant was huge and in full bloom.

Many years ago, there was a young man who worked in the operating room. I was the charge nurse, and he was our orderly. His job was to go get patients and bring them to the operating room to have their surgery. All day long, go get patients, bring them to the operating room. I used to enjoy talking to him about what he was going to do with himself “when he grew up”………he was only about 19.

One day, I brought him a book. He was teased frequently because, even though he is of Hispanic origins, he couldn’t speak Spanish. The book? “English and Spanish for Healthcare Personnel” He asked me why I gave it to him, since he was just an orderly. And I told him that yes, he was “just an orderly…..for now.” I planted a seed.

One day, a surgeon called me into the operating room: he was having a difficult time and need “another pair of hands” to hold retractors so the assisting MD and the scrub tech could hand him instruments and help him more. The tech was holding the retractors and the assisting MD was fumbling with the instruments, trying to “hand” them to the surgeon.

I left the room and found the orderly. I asked him if “blood and guts” bothered him. I knew that he frequently pitched in to help us clean the operating rooms between cases. We all pitched in and got the room cleaned and “turned over” for the next case. He said he was okay with blood and guts.

I took him to the scrub sink and talked him through a five-minute surgical scrub, then took him in the operating room and the surgeon stopped working long enough to allow the tech to get the orderly gowned and gloved, with me helping. The case lasted about two more hours and the orderly was there for the whole thing.

When we had another OR Tech Training Class, I lost my orderly: he became a scrub tech!

Last summer, I went to a baby shower and a friend of mine was there. She and I both worked in the operating room together and we were talking “old times.” I asked about the orderly and she told me that he is now a registered nurse, working in the operating room. I was thrilled to hear it!

I asked her what possessed him to go through the ordeal of nursing school and she laughed.
She had asked him the same question, and his answer? “Somebody believed in me.”

I love to plant seeds……