Nurturer

I’ll take that role.  Yes, I am a woman, and it seems that we have been given this job, to be the nurturers, so I’ll take it.  It actually seems to fit me quite well.  This is not because I’m a mom by the way, though I am.  It shows up when I am with my pets, when I find a stranded animal, of just about any kind. ( I took care of a bat a couple of months ago.)  Yes, I’m one of those people that takes the bug outside instead of squashing it-sorry, I know that drives some people crazy.

But like I said, I am a mom, and even though my kids are grown, nothing puts me into action like taking care of my kids.  One just had surgery, and there I was with meal in hand, getting drinks, blankets, etc.  But it was much bigger than that.  There is a feeling that motivates me to act.  It is/was truly in my heart and middle-not a thought like it would be nice to help out this person that can’t get up and walk to the kitchen right now. 

I’m not saying this is a woman only role or feeling.  I have definitely seen nurturing by men, or men nurturing, but in my observations, in comparison to most men I know, I haven’t seen it to the degree as in myself.  But, to be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen it to my level in a lot of women either.  O.K., so it’s me, though I’m absolutely positive  I am not the only person or woman with this quality, and I’d be willing to bet that there are definitely folks out there that are even more nurturing than me.  I’m not a nurse, and those people must feel very nurturing, or I don’t think they could possibly do that job.  It occurred to me to be in the health care profession at one time, actually a dr. rather than a nurse, but I knew that I would never be able to handle that life or death stuff.  I fell to pieces when my childhood dog had puppies.

On the other hand, I remember spending hours trying to catch and care for a stray kitten, taking him in, and spending what little money that I had on this kitten. (I was a poor college student at the time.)  My mom and dad, by the way, feed all the strays that they can every morning and every evening in their neighborhood, by putting out canned cat food on their front porch.  They also create little shelters under their back porch to protect them from the cold.  Did I inherit my nurturing from them?  They know a woman who built a cat shelter that has housed up to 200 cats at a time.  Can you imagine the work with that?  That’s nurturing at a level way beyond any nurturing that I have given.

The point of this blog is to share the joy of nurturing.  Plain and simple, it feels good. So whether it be your pet, somebody else’s pet, a stray, a child, an elder, a person you barely know, please try.  There is something very joyous about it.