Three Words

 

   I was asked to work on a project for a Relief Society lesson in May. We had been discussing what we were going to do for Mother's Day. It can be challenging to hold a Mother's Day lesson in our church because not all women have children and we want to be inclusive. We decided that it would be a good idea to focus on all the things that women do in our ward and in our communities. Women with children contribute more to our communities than raising their children. It was our intent to honor and recognize women for all that they do. 

   The project I was asked to work on was a visual of some type. Something that would represent the talents and contributions of the women in our ward. We thought it would be nice to have something with the words that women would use to describe themselves. We decided one way to do that was to post on the group Facebook page a request for three words that a member of the group would use to describe herself.

   It's an interesting question. What three words would you use to describe yourself? I can think of several: wife, pharmacist, cat-mom, writer, knitter, reader, friend, coworker, sister. I could also add daughter, cousin, niece, stepmother, biker, hiker and baker.

   How would I narrow those down to three that would describe what I contribute to my community and ward. Well, there are several words in the above list that describe my position within a family. The identify me, but not something I do. That narrows the list down to pharmacist, writer, knitter, friend, coworker, cat-mom, biker, hiker and baker.

    Now the task is to narrow this list of nine down to three. The way I want to do this is to choose the three that I am most passionate about. That's actually pretty easy. The three words are pharmacist, writer and cat-mom.

   It's easy why I would choose pharmacist. I've spent over half my life working to get people the medications they need and the information to take those medications correctly. I'm sometimes the first health care that a person sees. (to determine if something can be treated over the counter or whether more professional help is needed) I'm also in a group of the most accessible healthcare professionals. For several people I'm the healthcare professional they see most often. Many times my colleagues and I have noticed changes in a customer's condition based on how they look when we see them.

   Writer is a pretty obvious one too. I have been writing this column on BlogSpot since 2009. This column will be number 997.  I like to write. I used to write letters back when we used snail mail. From the boxes of letters I went through a few years ago, I was a pretty good pen pal. I've written posts on Facebook, emails to friends, speeches, lessons and church talks. I've written poems and have written the lyrics to one song. (a lullaby for the daughter of a friend) It's a good creative outlet.

   The last one may upset some people. There are some who would criticize me for calling myself a cat-mom. They would argue that caring for an animal is not the same as caring for a child. I would agree with that, but caring for a pet ( or animal companion per PETA) is more than just making sure they are clean, fed and trained. The cats who have lived with me need bonding time, need toys, places where they can look out windows and medical care. After Colby passed away Scamp needed support as he adjusted to life without the friend he'd known most of his life. I've had to make difficult end of life decisions for my cats. I guess I could call myself an ailurophile, but that doesn't really encompass all that I do for my cats. PETA suggests the term guardian, but that just seems a little strange. I could use cat-caregiver. 

   Those are my three words. I'm curious to see what other women in the ward will share.