Sewing deep thoughts.
I've been spending a lot of time recently hunched over my sewing machine. When Judah naps, I'll sneak in there to start cutting and piecing and ironing. (Pics to come later!) It's given me a lot of time to ponder why it is that I enjoy sewing so much. I think there are lots of reasons, but one big one really stuck out to me yesterday.
I love my job - I really do. But sometimes, at the end of a long day, I don't always have something to show what I accomplished. I'll spend my time at work, slowly working my way through all the floors in the hospital, trying to get everyone seen. I adjust medicines, start new ones, give IV fluids, and order tests all in hopes of trying to make my patients better than they were when they came in. But the nature of the world we live in is that our bodies decay and sometimes, in spite of my best efforts and the best of all medical technology, people continue to get worse.
At MUSC, just before graduation, each class invites some of their favorite professors to deliver lectures of advice and encouragement about our medical careers. I remember nearly nothing about what was said at these lectures except for one sentence delivered by a rather crusty professor of surgery. He told us that we should always mow our own lawns, because "some days I come home and mow the lawn and that's the only @#%! thing I've done all day."
I do not enjoy mowing the lawn. Thankfully, I have a husband who takes care of this. But I can definitely understand this professor's (crassly memorable) sentiment. Sewing accomplishes this same thing for me. It gives me something to do with my hands, the ability to actually create something and have something tangible to show for my work. When I spend a lot of time fighting what sometimes feels like a losing battle, I crave the sense of accomplishment that comes with holding an actual item in my hand that I made myself.
Sometimes, it's the only thing I accomplish all day.....
I love my job - I really do. But sometimes, at the end of a long day, I don't always have something to show what I accomplished. I'll spend my time at work, slowly working my way through all the floors in the hospital, trying to get everyone seen. I adjust medicines, start new ones, give IV fluids, and order tests all in hopes of trying to make my patients better than they were when they came in. But the nature of the world we live in is that our bodies decay and sometimes, in spite of my best efforts and the best of all medical technology, people continue to get worse.
At MUSC, just before graduation, each class invites some of their favorite professors to deliver lectures of advice and encouragement about our medical careers. I remember nearly nothing about what was said at these lectures except for one sentence delivered by a rather crusty professor of surgery. He told us that we should always mow our own lawns, because "some days I come home and mow the lawn and that's the only @#%! thing I've done all day."
I do not enjoy mowing the lawn. Thankfully, I have a husband who takes care of this. But I can definitely understand this professor's (crassly memorable) sentiment. Sewing accomplishes this same thing for me. It gives me something to do with my hands, the ability to actually create something and have something tangible to show for my work. When I spend a lot of time fighting what sometimes feels like a losing battle, I crave the sense of accomplishment that comes with holding an actual item in my hand that I made myself.
Sometimes, it's the only thing I accomplish all day.....
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