The Housekeeper

It was the second late night in a row, the second emergency heart surgery in two days.

Often when I walk from the operating room to the waiting room to check on a patient’s family, I go the proper way, down the long hall that wraps around the heart center. But everything was quiet this late at night  so I swung through the double doors of the cardiovascular recovery area instead, a short-cut. I knew everyone had gone home, so I wouldn’t run the risk of barreling into the busy nurses getting people ready for procedures or harried cardiologists late for procedures.

Beyond the double doors the floor was shiny. As I stepped across it, I realized someone had just given it a fresh washing down. I rounded the corner by the nurses’ station, and there she was: a pretty housekeeping girl with a mop.

“I’m sorry about walking on your floor,” I said. “If I would have known I would have gone the other way.”

“That’s okay!” She said with a bright smile. (Have I mentioned that the housekeeping department is rated highest in the hospital?)

I was struck by this exchange. Perhaps I should write my blog about her, I thought, not quite sure why.

Later, home from work and sorting laundry, I thought of the updates I haven’t written about in my blog, blessings over Easter and my musings over the future.

• My genetic test results. Thank God, the results arrived just in time to take home with me over Easter. They showed a rare but probably meaningless mutation in BRCA-2. This is one of the “big breast cancer genes”; but unlike the real mutations where hundreds of amino acids are faulty, mine was missing just one amino acid. The genetics counselor said it is considered negative, and cannot be considered to raise my risk of breast cancer. Again, it doesn’t mean I won’t get it; but it does mean those cancer fighting genes are probably doing their job.
• My answer to prayer on Good Friday. I had been praying about my future and asking God for direction: should I quite my job to pursue medical school?  Because of the chemistry and physics classes, I could not continue working my same job. In the week leading up to Easter, I just didn’t feel any clarity. I guess I don’t have to make a decision by Easter, I told myself. It was too big of a decision to make if I’m not sure. Then, driving to my sisters, I thought of how everyone asks me if I have my bachelor’s degree, which I don’t. Before the medical school idea emerged, I had been planning to earn my bachelor’s degree online while I continued working full-time. Why didn’t I think before of doing that first? I wondered. It might add an extra year; but it might not. And if I feel God directing me toward something else at the end of the year, I will have lost nothing. So, after discussion with family and finding them in favor, that is my current plan, to spend a year doing school online while I maintain my current job.
• A wonderful weekend with family! Let’s just say I didn’t ask the parents of my nieces if they were okay with toys that talk. Tee-hee.

Then, I realized why the housekeeper’s freshly-mopped floor had so touched me.

And what I really wanted to write my blog about was what the housekeeper taught me about my dreams. 

I think we all have a space to lay claim to, all have our own area of “floor” that is completely up to us to take care of.  We all have something we spend time, energy, and effort on.

There, alone among the silent CVR rooms with their empty beds and sliding glass doors, the housekeeper labored in the night, working on the floor.  She might have already been there for an hour when I came tramping through.  Her hands may have been taking on the shape of the mop handle by then. The floor was her domain because of the time and energy she had spent on it.

I also have a space to claim, to put my time and energy into.  It may mean toiling alone in the night. It may mean aching muscles and sleep-starved hours.  Whatever it is that I put time and effort into, will likely become a part of me: my domain, my life, my space.

And, perhaps it matters not so much which space I choose to throw my energy into, but how I respond when some self-important person comes clomping across my freshly-finished work, when they could have gone a different route.

Will I be able to say with the housekeeper, “That’s okay!” no matter who tramps their dirty feet across my dreams?

Because I think that good cheer is what gives the housekeeping department its high acclaim.

To do your job well and graciously endure thoughtless people: this is a high goal.  And while I may sort through my career goals in the next year, I don’t need to think about this one.  It applies to any endeavor, and it was a practice of Christ himself.  This is a goal I want to have no matter where I go in 2017.

P.S. –I have a new niece as of today!  Violet Claire.  I guess I won’t be buying her a toy that talks, because, although she doesn’t know it, there’s a prohibition on those at her house.  🙂