Today I was part of a group that helped to hang the banners for the
Denver Race for the Cure. The race is actually tomorrow, and hanging
banners was the best way I could find for me to help with my schedule
and living in the mountains.
When I contemplated walking the
race last year, I discovered it was going to be far too emotional for
me, and I wasn't ready even though I was planning to walk it with some
very supportive friends. My cousin, Jenni, had passed away only 8
months prior, from breast cancer, and my uncle, dad, and sister had
recently been found to be positive for the BRCA2 gene mutation. I was
still waiting to be tested, so felt there was too much going on, and
oddly I felt like I didn't know where I'd fit in, in the race.
This year, in light of the Oncology service project requirement, I
found that, again, I am not ready to walk in the Race for the Cure,
amongst the throngs of survivors and loved ones of those who have not
survived. My sister is facing a prophylactic mastectomy and beginning of reconstructive surgery this coming Tuesday,
and she was (and has been and will be) very much on my mind, as were my
cousin, and my aunt who passed from breast cancer in 1984. Thus, there was a fair amount of emotion as I contemplated even helping hang banners.
I
am not sure how this will affect my practice in pharmacy, except maybe
in light of putting myself out there, interacting with strangers for a
common goal. I was open for whatever the experience brought my way.
What I found was that I amongst a group of very nice, very different
from one another, in terms of background, but in terms of heart, very
similar people. Amid the seeming chaos in the world, it helped to
restore a bit of faith in humanity, and working together with such souls
was rewarding. This will likely be a handy understanding to have as I
work in pharmacy, in accepting each person as a child of God, and
remaining open to their unique gifts they have to share, whether it's a
patient or a coworker.
A life lesson that was apparent in our
activities is that each of us had unique talents or aspects to ourselves
that came in handy when coordinating with one another to brainstorn
some tricky obstacles we came across in our hanging the banners. I had
the opportunity to lean on some knowledge I've gained from being a
quilter, other's were able to use their height to an advantage, others
their tenacity to walk distances and remain cheerful. We are all
unique, as I am sure I will experience (and have experienced) in my life
and pharmacy practice, and we all have something to contribute to this
thing called Life. One person doing that job alone would have been a
disaster and taken forever, thus another good life lesson is that we are
here to help and love one another, and any job can be quickly done, and
be fun, with a creative cooperative group effort.
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