Insignificant Events

When I was nine years old I moved away from home for a few months. The idea was mine and my parents proudly agreed, since the impetus was because a dear friend of our family had fallen and broken her hip and arm. Rosella was an elderly lady who had acted as a sort of nanny to us, as well as many other families in the tiny community I grew up in, but she was a widow and all alone.

I wanted to do whatever my little nine-year-old body could do to help her. My desire was to assist this lady I loved who had been so kind to our family, but I ended up reaping the largest benefits out of that experience. Aside from the obvious ones of compassion, service, patience, and friendship it was during that two-month period that I decided to become a nurse.

I have been a nurse for 27 years, that aspect of my life essential to who I am as a person. Decades later I still consider that small desire to leave home for a while as a pivotal moment in my life. Certainly there have been many other times when a teeny decision or insignificant event has lead to major aftermaths, good and bad, but I specify this one because it set my feet on the path to my career choice. Assisting Rosella as I did then is very different from the duties I now perform as a neonatal ICU RN, but easing her pain planted the seed. Through ministering to her I developed a passion for healing as a craft and I still adore my profession and the tiny babies.

Six years ago I stepping into a movie theater to watch a romantic chick movie with my girlfriends. The movie was the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was an insignificant act that opened an entirely new pathway and caused my life to take a radical turn. A new gift was discovered and no one was more surprised than me!

The Trouble With Mr. Darcy is the fifth full-length novel in my continuation of Pride & Prejudice. I have been an incredibly busy lady these past years since walking out of that movie theater, and although certain there are many more grey hairs hidden underneath the blonde highlights than there were before, I would not change a moment of it. Giving voice to these characters is an honor and delight. Submitting to the gift birthed within my heart is joyous. I now love writing as much as I love taking care of babies.

The mystery of how this woman of rational science who hadn’t written anything longer than a letter since college could suddenly unearth a talent for storytelling is a mystery. I can’t solve the puzzle of it, accepting that all true gifts, whether artistic or intellectual, are birthed from within and granted from Above. I no longer question why an author any more than I question why a nurse. Instead I am merely thankful that fate has presented me another opportunity to experience joy and passion in a worthwhile craft. Hopefully fate will continue to smile upon me in my writing and nursing, rather than choosing to turn a third insignificant act into a pivotal moment! Two careers are enough, thank you very much!

Now how about you? What insignificant events ended up changing your pathway?