Surround Yourself With Care

Surround Yourself With Care

©Allen Merritt (2016)

I had to take a friend to the emergency room the other day, which if you’ve ever gone through the ER process, it can take hours and a ton of patience. You see a lot of people and have plenty to observe and take note of. I couldn’t help but be aware of how many people working in this environment were trying to do all they could to help the incoming patients. I found it inspiring to know there are still plenty of good people doing their best. Even under the most dramatic and traumatic of circumstances from one extreme to the other these individuals were in their own way working hard to create a positive environment and turn things around from negative to positive; from feeling bad to feeling better; from sad to glad and more. All these people surrounding other people and helping other people in need! Talk about a reminder in positivity.

The experience reminded me of another incident I had many years ago after learning a good friend of mine had committed suicide. In a nutshell, my friend had confided in me that they were planning on doing this to themselves and proceeded to make sure that I was in a position not to prevent it. Me being the caring person and wanting to help make things better tried to talk him out of it and be the good friend. However, despite my best efforts he ended his life anyway.

Following the incident I found myself not only upset, but angry. I felt set up for failure. I decided to go to a therapist to hash it out. After about 10 weeks the therapist asked me not to come back anymore, because I was the most normal out of any patient they had. I was kicked out of therapy! Ha! Long story short, he gave me a parting gift of a small red glass heart and a crucifix along with a little advice to be conscientious about surrounding myself with people who care. I guess he felt I needed the assurance that life goes on despite it all. But he also wanted to remind me to be good to myself by remembering not to allow the negatives to coming a knocking at my door.

Sitting in the ER with nothing else to do, catapulted me back to that memory and the idea of surrounding ourselves with the good and the positive; to blanket ourselves with those who actually do care and not waste one minute of time doing anything else, because life is indeed too short.

We cannot forget to make every effort to thrive and not just survive OR that we are too blessed to be stressed. Clichés aside, there is a level of common sense in placing ourselves in good company which surely provides us all with a sense of calm and peace in the here and now.

I must of sat there in the back corridors of the ER for about 4-5 hours in total when an incoming nurse wandered by me and greeted me with, “How are you doing, young man?” I couldn’t help but smile both inside and out because I was definitely older than this man. He had great energy and proceeded to say hello to a colleague sharing that exciting things were happening.

Observing this environment and remembering my personal memories led me back to the idea of surrounding ourselves with only those who care. I am reminded of this as a bell chiming or clanging reminds us of the time or brings us back to the present moment. It wakes us up out of our stupor and/or distractions, which is easy to get caught up in these days.

With this little wake-up call reminder I turned to my friend and said, “Did you hear what that nurse just said to me? They referred to me as a young man. I need to keep him around.”

I hope you find yourself surrounded with a lot of people who bring about a sense of care for you this week. If there are any uncaring people along your pathway, I hope you are at least aware enough to move around them toward those who do care. We all need a positive little nudge by someone nice and kind. By the same token, we can also be the one who is nice and kind.

Think about it and go out there and have a positive, happy-go-lucky week!

Cheers!