Sunday Blog 29 – 27th March 2022
Perhaps you are kind enough to over-look the fact that last week there was no Sunday Blog. In truth I drafted it – but it didn’t feel quite like my story, so I didn’t hit send. Because staying out of others stories is usually the right call. Our James Clear (Mr Atomic Habits) always says – never miss twice. So here I am again this Sunday. But I’m not cheating, so it is Blog 29, not 30. We must have standards!
There are now just four days between me and the end of my tenure at the Health Consumers’ Council. My hair is not properly gray as just as I was poised to have the last dyed locks chopped off, my hairdresser has to isolate as one of her children is a close contact. (So selfish!)
It has been a very long three months and also a very short time (e.g. not long enough to actually have 100% gray hair) It also hasn’t been long enough for me to understand what I will leave behind and what I will take with me on the next part of my life. Can’t I just know for sure? I guess I could say I am emerging from the messy middle and the next stage is still, well unfolding, much like the Transitions book said it would. Bloody slow and inconvenient though.
I have been thinking about the Liz Gilbert explanation of the difference between a hobby, a job, a career and a vocation. I have definitely shed the career, but what of the vocation do I want to, or need to bring forward?
And then I read this blog about a mother of a daughter whose misdiagnosis prompted many unnecessary surgeries, lost years and family trauma. She decided she wouldn’t sue – not wanting the non-disclosure agreement that would mean any learning from this experience would be lost. This paragraph leapt out at me:
we never heard a word from those doctors again: not a call to apologize, not even a response to a question about medications during her hospital stay for the surgery. As time went on, I felt shocked that we could endure and be forced to process this experience while the doctors could go on as though nothing happened.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medical-malpractice-doctor-misdiagnosis_n_6220e96ee4b0c3935752e1a2
She discusses the Hobson’s Choice of 1) seeking financial compensation which means the issue is brushed under the carpet, where learnings are potentially also brushed like so much dust and dirt or 2) choosing not to sue but instead to advocate for change.
And the fire in my belly is a bit of a clue that yeah, this health advocate nerd thing is a vocation, not a career. And it’s still unfolding.