Washing Gum and Other Misadventures

I found it. It had been missing for over a day. I found it after I unknowingly washed and dried it. It was a half a pack of chewing gum, and yes, you read that right. I found it after I washed and dried it. Did I mention that it was in the midst of my nursing uniforms? Ugh!

After several sighs and de-gumming the dryer, I started thinking about failures. Usually I don't like to mention my failures, because, well, they make me feel like a failure! But here I go, sharing with the world a few of my misadventures and what I've learned from them.

I never thought I would do this, let alone share it, but here I go. This past year I was given a beautiful, cute puppy. I was really excited to have a dog again. Five months later I gave her up to another family. My family and I prepared our home for this furry little addition, and we worked hard at making her part of our lives. We live in a townhome, so we knew she would need several walks a day to get enough exercise. Many hours were spent on training and walks and runs. We even took her to obedience school for training. We loved and still love her.




In spite of the love and training, she remained resistant to following commands. The worst part was that we couldn't trust her around people. She would nip at them quite hard, not viciously, but hard enough to possibly hurt them. We eventually came to the conclusion that she would be better with a family with a fenced yard where she could run around more frequently. I freely admit I cried when we gave her up, but I felt and still feel certain that it was the right thing to do. You may think this is no big deal, but it really impacted me.

That may seem trivial to you, particularly if you don't like dogs. So let me share one more sample of failing. I'm a nurse working in an intensive care unit. Sometimes in spite of all our efforts, a patient's body simply doesn't respond to treatment. They worsen and sometimes die. Their organs fail. They go into heart failure, respiratory failure, kidney failure, and so on. The reality is that God designed us incredibly, but still, our bodies aren't meant to live forever.

The lesson from the gum incident is simple. I should more carefully check my pockets before throwing clothes into the laundry basket. I must admit that I'm still trying to figure out the lesson from getting and then having to give up a puppy. One thing is that I wouldn't judge anyone else for having to give up a pet. Another is that failing at something doesn't mean you're a failure.

One thing I've learned from being a critical care nurse is that while we encourage our patients to fight to live, we must also prepare them for dying. This may seem contradictory, but I truly believe that these go hand in hand. We should all face the fact that death will find us at some point. Doing so should spur us on to live more fully and to treasure each moment.

A while ago I met a girl from Australia who was living here in the United States for a season. She really impressed me, because she was so enthusiastic about trying new things. I remember her playing volleyball for the first time. To be honest, she wasn't a natural and was not that good. However, she enjoyed it so much that her enthusiasm was contagious. Her joy at experiencing life inspired me!

The most important lesson I've learned from failing is that God loves me all the time. He loves you all the time, too. His grace and mercy are never ending. It's astonishing how much He loves us, failures and all!