I believe everyone has an innate and specific passion in life. And through the course of life's experiences, you find this passion; it is the moment when things "click" and your internal navigation system shifts into gear. Sometimes this occurs as one burst of inspiration, while other times there are the proverbial signs leading your way. This was my first sign:
I love Tacoma artists Beautiful Angle, because their art (above) always gives way to pause and reflection. Although I don't own this piece of their work, I think about it often and it reminds me to always be aware of what my goals are....what's the big picture/purpose/passion?!
Then there was the prefacing statement in an Infectious Disease textbook that I was reading: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew" -Abraham Lincoln (1862)
That's when it clicked. Mr. Lincoln's words may have been directed toward some noble cause of his time (like abolishing slavery), but in my soul they resonated as a very pertinent and profound way to address matters of health. To me, healthcare is not just an interchangeable term for doctors and insurance companies, rather it's a concept that encompasses individuals and communities. It's medicine and cultural tradition; it's hospitals and aid clinics; it's education and activism; it's prenatal vitamins and death with dignity; it's local and global.
I believe in healthcare because it is the fundamental belief that life should go on, feeling better than before.
