Five Years Later

Sidewalk chalk outside the hospital in March 2020

This week marked 5 years since I started a post-retirement part-time job on the respirology unit at a local hospital. I left that unit in November 2024 and now work as a part-time float to cover vacations, weekends and sick days. The two hospitals in our city will be merging sometime this year. The merger was supposed to happen on April 1st, but the snap provincial election and dissolution of parliament in February delayed the approval of the proposed change. I have worked through two other health care mergers and found them stressful and messy, so this may be the year I decide to resign from my professional college. 

So far, this year has created uncertainty for many people, not only in Canada but around the world. Change is difficult and can be disorienting. The global pandemic, which was declared in March 2020, created chaos that altered travel, businesses, schools, hospitals, churches and our social interactions. We have gradually come to a new normal since the pandemic was declared to be over in May 2023. Now, we are seeing rapid geopolitical changes that threaten global alliances, treaties and economies. It is hard to distinguish between sabre-rattling and real threats. 

I made a diagram about a decade ago to help me regain focus during another time of stress. I have written about it twice before, but it is time for another reminder. My sphere of control is small and mainly confined to my personal attitudes and decisions. My sphere of influence is larger, but I must be careful not to exert unwelcome control by micromanaging people in this zone. The outer sphere is beyond my control, yet these things often trigger feelings of hopelessness and concern for the future. When global events or personal illness and loss upend our lives, we still need to center our attention on things we can control. 

I am reading a library copy of Mel Robbins' new best-selling book called The Let Them Theory. It expands on the same concept of "freeing ourselves from the opinions, drama and judgement of others...and the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you". (I may add a review of the book when I have finished it)

The things that ground me are my faith in God, being out in nature, increasing my understanding of history and enjoying the artistic expressions of people who are secular prophets of our time. It may be a novel, a journalist's analysis, a film, painting, poem, song or play that helps us to explore what is good and evil around us. 

There are a few mundane tasks to complete at home today, and then my next goal is to see the total eclipse of the moon tonight. Clear skies are forecasted and this event doesn't fit into any category on my control, influence and concern graph. It will be good to focus on something beyond the touch of mankind. 

One more memory: Our dear grandmother and great-grandmother, Dr. Audrey Devins, died 35 years ago today on March 13, 1990, a few weeks before her 94th birthday. She lived through a tumultuous era between 1896 and 1990, and as an adult lived through World War 1, the Great Depression, World War 2 and the Cold War. Personally, she lost her 3-year-old son John to meningitis, her first home to fire, and her husband Clifford Devins to cancer at the age of 52.  I don't remember her for these losses but for what she invested in the lives of others, including myself. She was a great mentor and a fine example of resilience, grace and optimism for the future. I want to carry her pattern forward!