Transitions

Transition: (a noun)
a :  passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another :  change
b :  a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another
Transition: (an intransitive verb)
: to make a change from one state, place, or condition to another : to make a transition

Transition. It's been on my mind lately. Sometimes these changes are easy, smooth and anticipated like the feeling at the end of the day when one changes from work clothes into a comfy pair of pajamas. Or like when you move from dinner to dessert. Easy, smooth and anticipated.

Other transitions hit a few bumps in the road and sometimes even a detour or two. If you've ever given birth, or been with someone in the throes of labor, you quickly realize that the little part the takes you from 7 cm to 10 cm and "complete" is, for most women, quite excruciating. In fact, it has even earned it's own name: "transition", and while painful, relentless and exhausting, it is also necessary. This transition phase take a mother-to-be from Point A to Point B(aby). (Yes, I know there is also that pushing bit that has to happen too, but I'll spare you the details.)

(You're welcome.)

Some transitions are gradual and almost not even noticed; they may even take years. Take the aging process for example. I was 26 years old just yesterday and now, let's just suffice it to say that I am not. Or the passage from seed to bud to bloom; it is gradual but oh, so worth the wait.

Transitions. Why even mention them at all? I mean, we all have them and we always will in some form or another. I told you that change has been on my mind lately and for good reason. This past week was my last full-time week as a nurse in the Regional Intensive Care Nursery or RICN. When I started there I had no idea what "RICN" even stood for and now it has played a tremendous part in shaping me into the nurse I am today. Friday morning, as I walked down the hallway, I turned and this is what I saw:

 Ten years ago, I was walking up the same hallway, I saw the exact same view and I was nervous, scared, happy and excited. Today I feel the same way as I leave this place, not for the last time as I am still employed per diem, but certainly for the last time as a full-time RN. Instead of three times a week, it may only be three times a month. I am moving forward to a different kind of nursing and I am nervous, scared, happy and excited. My transition is taking me from the hospital to the home, from neonatal to pediatric, from a much-to-long drive to a much-nicer-one and from nightshift to dayshift. Actually, a lot of transitions all rolled up into the big one.

Will it be easy? Painful? Smooth? Full of bumps in the road? I don't know for sure yet, but I am willing to take a step forward, then another and another and another down the hall, through the door and onto the next scene in this movie we call life.

As I go, if you think of me in your day or when you are awake at night, say a prayer. I'd appreciate it. My prayer, and the one thing I take with me no matter where the road may lead is this:

Lord, show me how and let me be a blessing, to my coworkers, to the families, to my patients. Help me to keep it together when I want to fall apart. And Lord, I'd appreciate no flights in the helicopter tonight. (Hey, it can't hurt to ask!)  Amen. 

I may need to change the last part up a bit. That's one change I can't really say I'll miss too much.

Love,
Dianne

“20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain