A love letter this valentine’s day to the doctors, nurses, therapists, and social workers who give of their precious time with loved ones to care for us at our most vulnerable. Please join me in supporting other sex educators this Valentine's Day by checking out the rest of our "Love Is" blogs here. And don't forget to tune in to O.school for more pleasure-centric, inclusive sex education every night of the week.
Love is...
To the nurses who tend to our fevers and infections
through consecutive night shifts
To the internists who miss thanksgiving dinner
and ring in the new year in yesterday’s scrubs
To the therapists taking emergency appointments
while their fiancés wait on candlelit anniversary meals
To the doulas, the social workers, the vet techs and PAs,
the disciples of healing in all its forms:
Thank you.
Because our illness knows not the punch-clock of the 8 hour shift
nor the Out of Office vacation minder
Because our babies crown in the breaths between your private dramas,
born of 2 hours sleep and a lifetime of anxiety compressed
Because the sharp twinges of our trauma contract
when you might otherwise be watching Casablanca in your pjs
Thank you.
When we push you to your edges,
force new protocols and demand your adaptation,
when we ask for more and more and more and more
it is because we are so grateful that you have laid your life down
in pursuit of this holy work
that you pull from yourself again and again to soothe us
that your love is siphoned into every IV drip
inked onto insurance claims, worn into the tread
of your favorite work shoes until they are slick and bare.
Thank you.
We see your love. We know it.
And even at our lowest
when we are drug-addled, triggered, vomiting, and sleep deprived…
We return it ten-fold when we thrive.
