“We think we know today but tomorrow may be different. We have learned that change is the rule not the exception.” —Sherrie Gould MSN, NP-C
Over the past 18 months, we’ve all had no choice but to adapt daily to change. We have experienced isolation and grief, changes in routines, and we’ve been challenged to reimagine what’s possible.
It is our friends in the medical community, who have been working tirelessly to tend to and keep safe each person in their care, who have had to adapt, too.
“Never has there been a more perilous time such as the one we are living now,” Dr. Maria DeLeon told us. And, yet, she has not lost hope. She has not given up. She has discovered her own and our collective resilience: our power to rise. “I was reminded of the resilience of the global Parkinson’s community as we sang in unison at a conference recently. . . . Although most of us in the group were not professional singers, we sang with hearts full of joy and some tears in our eyes as we uttered the words, “no te rindas”—”don’t give up.”
Alexis Santangelo, AGNP-C, agrees. Resilience is about rising in the face of a challenge to find an alternative, it’s “being open to change.” Sometimes, we must go with the flow. “Resilience,” she reflects, is “giving grace and compassion to ourselves and others.” It’s not about judging ourselves, but trusting that we’re doing the best we can. In hard times, be kind to you.
And it’s only together, in community, that we grow. It is through an ecosystem of care that we overcome. Sarah Kempe-Mehl, MD, has found her own resilience after learning from her patients who, she said, “had already been dealing with unpredictable days, inability to make firm plans, lack of clear certainty about the future. They showed me that weathering this storm involved the same resilience, fortitude, and flexibility, and that hope may just be neuroprotective.” Hope is the glue that holds us, that lets us wake up each day and try, again, with renewed possibility.
From her children, she says she has learned the power of laughter erupting in the middle of the day, unexpectedly, carefree. “As my 8-year-old son taught me just last week,” Dr. Kempe-Mehl said, “you know what’s the STRONGEST superpower? The power of choice.” We can’t control everything, but sometimes we can choose how we respond.
From all of us at PMD Alliance to each of you in the medical community, thank you. We see you. We know it hasn’t been easy. And we celebrate your resilience.
Show your gratitude to a medical professional in your life by sending them a card.
A small act of kindness goes a long way.
