Wet Cement

It was raining as I made my way to my first day of work last Monday. There’s nothing quite like a rainy Monday, is there? I was excited, sure, but also nervous. Fortunately, some familiar faces of my former classmates greeted me in the conference room and helped calm my jumping nerves.

I’m not sure what I expected from an orientation day. Definitely to hear about policies and procedures and benefits. Definitely not to hear that I am there because God called me there. I wasn’t expecting to be commissioned or have someone bless me saying, “May you find growth and renewal.” Growth and renewal . . . I’m living and breathing that daily.

Yesterday, was my first day to take on two patients. Not on my own mind you, but all the same it was a little surreal. My patients were good to me and graciously overlooked my fumbling around with new equipment and trying to figure out where things were located. As a “newbie,” I’m more than a little unsure of everything so when I hear my patient on the phone talking about how well she’s being taken care of and how she has the “cutest little nurse,” I think maybe I can do this after all. A coworker laughingly told me with my sassy attitude I’ll fit right in and I hope that’s true. Little moments like this that make the long hours, tired feet, dehydration, and steep learning curve worth it. Because if I can do something with my small hands to help heal, reassure with a smile, while earning a paycheck, then I am definitely blessed. And I felt that blessing driving down West End last week watching the sun rise and kiss the tops of the beautiful old buildings and church steeples on my commute.

A couple Sundays ago at church, Darren was talking about January hopes and resolutions and newness. He used this phrase “wet cement” to describe it and I found myself thinking it was the perfect description of life right now. I’m in a season of wet cement. There’s a lot of change and possibility.

I’m falling in love with life all over again. Finding unexpected joy in so many moments. When I sit in home group with this assortment of people who would never come together under other circumstances yet somehow make this amazing kind of sense as a whole. It’s in the sheer excitement of getting to wear royal blue scrubs instead of the white ones I’ve endured the last couple of years. It’s going to bed exhausted from a well-spent day. It’s the quiet moments when I can catch my breath. Grabbing breakfast with a new gal-pal and talking until the lunch crowd appears. And it’s nights spent with this group of friends that grafted me in and finally realizing they’re not just being polite because I’m a friend-of-a-friend but that they actually like hanging out with me. It’s in finding myself in someone’s lyrics:

it took me 27 years to wrap my head around this-
to brush the ashes off of everything i love.
where courage was contagious, confidence was key.

right as rain, as soft as snow,
it grows and grows and grows,
our home sweet home.

we’ll try to document this light,
with cameras to our eyes.
in an effort to remember
what being mended feels like.

Isn’t it funny how you don’t realize just how broken you’ve been until you’re in the process of being mended?  Sometimes mending comes in the beauty of watching snowflakes drift in the wind and other times it’s being able to simply find the right quip at the right moment. It’s listening to the back-and-forth of a story from so far back no one recalls the same details. It’s being able to make someone who’s in pain laugh. It’s in the randomness and the trivial and the silly. I’m being stitched up by good hugs and long talks and the best company.

And I am more than a little grateful for the mending, for the wet-cementiness, for second chances, for a season to smooth off the rough edges. For time to lean into the scary and embrace the unknown. Just to live the growth and renewal and be thankful for this moment right now, for as long as it lasts.

Tennessee, You’re Good Enough For Me

Tennessee, you’ve been good to me
Yes, I’ve come to believe you’re where I wanna be
You may not be what everybody needs
but Tennessee, you’re good enough for me

The lyrics to Mindy Smith’s “Tennessee” have been echoing around in my heart. I was getting my haircut last week and the gal asked me if I’m from here. How do you answer that question? I mean, no, I was born in Indianapolis and we quickly moved to Michigan for a couple years. I spent my preschool/elementary years in Ohio. So, I guess I’m technically from the North. Which shows in the fact that my family still roots for the Cincinnati Reds and The Ohio State University. I also refuse to call all soft drink products Coke. A Sprite or a Pepsi is not a Coke.

But, the summer before seventh grade we moved to Tennessee. I’d spent time here before. A hallmark of my summers growing up was driving South with my grandparents to spend the time at their house in Arkansas. After a week in Hot Springs, they’d bring us kids to Franklin, TN where my aunt and uncle lived for Fourth of July. My parents would drive down for the holiday, we’d grill out, watch fireworks, and then we’d head back to Ohio. The oppressive heat and humidity defined my summer trips. The beauty of the magnolia trees worked it’s way into my heart.

So, although I was not happy about moving, of all the places I could have moved this is was the lesser of the evils. And I quickly grew to love it here. There’s nothing quite like it. I can be in the thick of Nashville in under twenty minutes. City lights, The Ryman, Hillsboro Village- these are a few of my favorite things. But while I live in the suburbs, in less than ten minutes I can be driving down a country road hollering, “Hello!” to a pasture full of baby cows. And if I want that small town feel, I can head over to downtown Franklin, which may be one of the quaintest places I know. It’s much busier now then it was when I was in high school. How many nights did we walk downtown once the streetlights came on and have only a few others cross our path? It may not be Stars Hollow but it’s close.