your daily rock : choose

September 11, 2013 in Daily Rock, General

Someone who had been a nurse to AIDS patients years ago came to one of my recent retreats.

The topic of “choice” came up, and she told this story:

“One of the new patients was very sick, dying, and when I went in to introduce myself, he struggled to sit up a bit in his bed. He read my name tag aloud, ‘Kathryn,’ and then asked if I preferred Kathryn or Kathy or some other name. I hesitated, and said, ‘Well, some people like to call me Kathy, but I’m not sure if I should use Kathryn because it seems more professional.’ As I rambled on, he finally interrupted me, “Lady, I don’t have a lot of time here, you’re going to have to choose.”

None of us has a lot of time here; we need to choose.

Love,

(These beautifully painted rocks are created by Kim Mailhot, aka The Rock Fairy.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.