This is just a little news update.  It appears that I may very well be finished with patient care by the end of the month.  I cannot believe how quickly this has all happened since the June retreat.  How I suddenly realized I didn’t want to pursue the DPT after all.  How I rummaged around in the back of my psychic closet, put on the clothes of the philosopher/writer that I hadn’t worn in 30 years – and discovered that they still fit, and are suddenly fashionable again.

It’s not a good idea to quit my day job, but after my week in August with Al and a cabin in the Oregon pines and a creek that couldn’t stop yammering on about the meaning of life outside the door, I saw myself plopping myself in front of one of the nice ladies at work and begging for something else to do, desperately spitting out my education background and writing and speaking skills within a minute and a half.  I couldn’t take the stress of patient care much longer.  I heard her say “Your timing is good, we need someone with rehab background in quality improvement department with all the Medicare changes coming in 2011.”  I found my clinical supervisor truly sorry at the prospect of losing me as a field clinician but fully supportive of me moving somewhere else in the company.

Now it is early 2011.  The new role is beginning.  The clinical supervisor and the area director urge me to “just say no” to patient care, to cut the cord, to jump on this opportunity to make a difference in the company, to use other skills (my old skills?), to realize the vision of making the changes easier for my fellow therapists to handle.  The area director is saying they need to develop a rehab supervisor position.  There is, in other words, plenty for me to do outside the realm of patient care.  The people in the administration of this company are so real, so down to earth and very smart.  They value their employees and understand that taking care of the employees means consistent success and loyalty across the board.  Even today when I talked to my clinical supervisor about the probability that I would not be treating patients, she gave me a huge smile and said “Now you go make it happen – they need you and it’s long overdue to  have a rehab person in there.”  No guilt.  No disappointment. Only joy for my good fortune and good timing.

A long talk with my husband finds the same support.  Even if I make a little less money while this all gets geared up, the goal is for me to be less stressed so I can pursue my other callings and battery re-chargers: writing, quilting, singing, and still and always and forever the most important calling and the one with the highest return on investment:

mothering.