Yesterday I was sitting on a bench outside the Health Science Library at THE Ohio State University Medical Center. I am not usually in the practice of praying for specific things, but just before I decided to sit for a moment and look out at the green space in front of the medical center, I had silently prayed for God to send a friend. It has been a difficult month here at my "home away from home" , leaving me feeling lost and of diminished worth. Before a minute had passed a woman named Mary appeared walking up to me.
Mary is a lovely lady and a friend who I have known now for 8 years. She asked me how things were going and I replied "not so good". Mary knows I left a position I had really liked in Emergency Medicine in order to do palliative care work. To my increasing dismay, this turned out to be one of the poorer choices I have made in my nursing career, as I have tried unsuccessfully now for 2 years to find a place where I fit in like I did there. Mary told me that she knew that this time in my life was temporary and said that I should be strong because she knew that something was going to come along that would be a good place for me. She lifted my heart by her words, even as I cried to hear them. She helped me to see past the way things are and to find patience, even for a day, to wait for something good to happen. She reminded me to have faith and to believe in myself. And then, after giving me a small hug, she continued on her way. I clearly heard a bell ringing softly, or maybe I just felt it in my heart. Angels are real.
