Why “Healing” has got me hooked:
I recently started reading “Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient” by Theresa Brown, RN. It caught my attention on a list from my local bookstore as “Recommended for You”. The cover is a beautiful, welcoming blue and has a syringe injecting flowers into the sky. Right up my alley.
I held onto it for a while as I was finishing up The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak (and needed a pause between books to let that one settle into my soul a bit, anyway).
Well, it turns out, “Healing” is exactly what I’ve been looking for (without even knowing it). I’m a few chapters in (and hesitated a moment to share what I think, like what if she really turns into a monster in the middle of the book??? If so, she’s really good at hiding her dark side).
Brown’s ability to capture the struggles as a nurse in modern American Healthcare is poignant. She’s weaving a beautiful tale from the professional, personal, and parental perspective, which I’ve found is why working in a caring profession feels so complex and difficult to define. (I’ve been writing about healthcare, comparing it to quilting or gardening, human lives and finding our stories in nature. Struggling, and thinking I understand what’s happening in healthcare, but lost at where to head from here. I don’t want to just sit here piling onto the complaint dumpster fire. Storytelling helps me connect with people, and the only way I know how to do that is through writing).
Action Items:
Theresa Brown is new to me, but I can’t even wait to finish this book to get others reading it with me. So, if anyone is interested, please pick up a copy and let’s discuss!!! There’s even a free book club guide with starter discussion questions to get the conversation flowing. (I’ve tried to start a few book clubs, one with “Restorative Faith” by Alexander Lang and another with Alan Watts’ “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, but I hadn’t ever started a book club and it hasn’t gone anywhere fruitful yet). This is right up my alley, and I’m so grateful to have come upon it at this point in my life, career, and the world as it stands today.
Oh, and by the way, she writes on Substack (also new and fresh for me) and I’m a new subscriber to her Substack so I can keep up to date with what else she has to say (Win, Win!). I don’t think working in healthcare is a prerequisite to enjoying her work, she has a very smooth way of describing complex problems without using a lot of jargon, but also helping you understand the weight of the problem. She explains it in a way any human could (and should) understand. Healthcare is complex, it’s messy, and she has a beautiful way of telling that story to any human.
I’m very thankful for the time in my life to enjoy a good book. I know that it’s a privilege to have time to read, and I want to read books that are substantive. I want to plant good seeds in healthy soil in my mind (yes a little junk sometimes, too). If I’m going to make the time to read, I want it to be spent on something like this. I’m thankful for the authors who have taken the time to bring these brilliant pieces to life. The time. The energy. The gumption. Not know where your writing might be heading, or what it’s going to become. Not knowing if it’s going to become something you will someday hold in your hand. I hope it’s empowering to you. I’m enjoying this book as a brilliant piece of literature, but I’m also thinking about this person who spent this time to weave this beautiful tale (something I’ve hesitated to do on a public level). And as I get out of my old comfort zone, I so appreciate the authors who put it out there, so I can feel braver when I write. Thank you.
Love, Jessie
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