A Chance to Learn About Your Natural Instinct in Emergencies

I have to be honest... my week has been all over the place. I am feeling much better physically, but this week was definitely one for the emotions.

With that being said, I want to tell you about what happened this past Thursday night.

We were all sound asleep. At 2:00am, our house alarm went off. It has never gone off on its own in the middle of the night (thank goodness).

When I heard the alarm, my eyes popped open. I jumped out of bed, only to smash my shin into the heavy wood of our bed frame. I fell to the ground. My adrenaline was pumping so I leaped up and ran down the stairs.

I checked the 3 doorways... and they all appeared closed. What the heck?!

With 5 seconds remaining until the cops would be automatically called, I managed to disarm the system. Guardian Protection had called my cell phone and said that it was coming from the garage.

Well... what do you know. The door leading into the house from the garage had come ajar. Phew. Everything was fine. They asked for our secret code... and sure enough, I remembered it. 

I sat on the steps, took a breath, and noticed that I had a contusion the size of a softball on my shin. And it was painful. The pain radiated to my hip. I was sure that I had done some damage.

But - everything was fine. Nothing had gone wrong.

As I reflected, I thought back to my many nights on call working in the NICU. Never once had I fallen out of bed and hurt myself while running to a code, but the response was similar. I was confident that I was going to show up - I was going to arrive as fast as possible. - I was going to make a difference.

Long ago, my father taught me that the worst thing you can do in an emergency is nothing. I think those words have impacted me significantly.

And as I sat on the steps... I felt very proud. Feeling proud is something that we don’t celebrate enough. I felt proud that I would do anything to protect my family. I felt proud that instinctually, I take action. I felt proud of myself.

I didn’t talk about this pride to anyone. So - I felt that it was super important to remind you to feel proud. There are so many things that make you uniquely you... which of those things can we celebrate today?

Feeling proud is a beautiful, human thing. Let’s stop missing opportunities to celebrate this.

Today, I want you to take a minute and answer this. What are you proud of???

Sending you love and strength….