Day 245; The Reward for Living Right

Me and Val. What's that bright light behind us?
Hmmm?

The Reward for Living Right

Call me crazy (I heard that,) but I believe that living right increases the probability of things going right, and that when folks who are living right get together, all kinds of things can happen.

Let me explain; earlier this year, while I served as MC for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, I participated in a raffle in which I was the prize (please don’t go there.)

The winning nurse had the opportunity to have me come and speak for their hospital. While there, I would spend time on their unit with the critical care nurses.

Now, before I tell you how amazing life is, and how well things work together, let me remind you of the love I have for these nurses.

Critical care nurses kept my mother well and loved during a two year health battle with a brain tumor and all of the problems that came with it. They kept my daughter here when she suffered a major illness and ended up in intensive care and they kept my son alive.

Critical care nurses are the Children of Grace. Every day they serve up some of God’s unmerited favor.

The raffle was done at the certification banquet which honors and celebrates nurses who have earned certification in specialty areas. This is difficult work that requires constant learning and a great deal of commitment. There were over 2,000 in attendance at this banquet. (The conference itself is about 7,000 and there are 79,000 critical care nurses in the association.)

Someone came up and spun the huge raffle basket and I looked on as the name was called.

Val’s colleagues heard her name and jumped up before she did. They cheered and ran towards me, but the actual winner could not believe that she had been called.

Finally, she made her way to the microphone and when I asked her where she was from, everything around me went bright. I felt myself standing next to my mother and all of my ancestors who were saying; "That’s right girl, you just keep doing the right thing."

Out of all of the folks there, Val and her team were from Christiana Hospital in Delaware, the same hospital where my children were born. The one where my son was loved to life; I was thinking, “What are the odds of this?”

When I went there last week, I saw folks I had gone to high school with, but hadn’t seen for years. People came up afterwards and said, “You have no idea how much I needed you today.”

All I could say was ditto.

Everything is connected. When we live right, we increase the probability of things going right. Yes, life will happen, but you will have good folks, good times and good memories to draw from.

Be you, be well, be in the Light.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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