If you frequently drive, or crawl along, congested highways like the 401, you have ample experience in the phenomenon that, ‘Life happens while you’re busy making other plans.’ Recently, after a beautiful day of Jubilee celebrations with my religious community in Toronto, I was heading west on the 401 in the early afternoon. Well, you may have guessed it. A trip of about 200 km from Toronto to London should take about two hours or thereabouts, but never four! Yet that’s what it took that day, putting paid to plans I had for the evening.
However, not all was lost. One tends to take in so much more while moving at a snail’s pace. A slow pace can also lend itself to pondering some of life’s big questions, at times triggered by those with whom we share the road. How could I not stop (ah, we already had stopped in our tracks) to take a photo of the humongous truck adjacent to me with the warning Do Not Push emblazoned on its rear? This phrase gave me pause to ponder why I do not take kindly to being pushed. Cold fresh WATER, as advertised by my other huge travel companion, would have been most welcome as I sat there mulling over why most of us resist being pushed. I mean, no one in their right mind would try to push that monstrosity of a truck, but there are plenty of folk who like to push others, for whatever reason. However, my mind drifted into quite a different direction.
If you have read some of my previous blogs, you know that I am a hospital chaplain. Over the years I have spent time with people of all walks of life, but especially with children as I have a soft spot for all those sick kiddos at the hospital where I minister. Preemie babies in incubators and tiny tots in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit tend to really tug at my heart strings. So, while I’m stuck on the 401, the Do Not Push transports me to the hospital where babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit might as well have those words, or ‘I’ll do it my way’, emblazoned on their incubators. “Do Not Push, Doc”, seems to be what these amazing tiny human beings at times say loud and clear. The exceptional nurses who care for these babies refer to it as ‘Preemie Power’. Though tiny and seemingly fragile, and totally dependent for everything on those who care for them, these babies ‘wield’ their power. They grow and thrive at their own pace. They will not be pushed.
At times it may seem as if all that is being done to save a preemie, is in vain. And then, when all looks bleak and those carefully constructed plans and expertise seems to be for naught, those babies surprise everyone. They do it their way, and against all odds begin to thrive. Before you know it, a miracle unfolds before your very eyes. Yes, miracles are not uncommon in the NICU. They are not the kind of miracle that might make the headlines. They are the nearly imperceptible, slow miracles you could miss if you are not attentive to the awesome wonder of tiny babies doubling their birth weight within a couple of weeks, much to everyone’s surprise. I have heard moms call their tiny infant a trickster, who keeps everyone on their toes. No, these babies will not be pushed. But, yes, with tender loving care these incredible babies, as tiny as they are when they are born, grow surprisingly well and given time, go home to lead healthy lives.
- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps
