Curiosity can be the key ingredient to finding the right path
Sometimes it’s the things that intrigue us that lead us to our most fulfilling lives
Anne Myers found her purpose after being knocked sideways by grief. As an emergency nurse she had seen a lot of death and dying, but nothing had prepared her for losing her mother. The experience made her curious, particularly about the difference between dying at home and dying in a hospital.
And so she followed her curiosity, joining information sessions about, and training in, palliative care. She discovered her interest lay in helping people who were caring for loved ones at home. It allowed her to help them find firmer ground amidst a shaky emotional landscape.
Personally, I’m terrified of death. I know I’m not alone. It’s one of those inevitabilities that we try to ignore. But knowing there are people like Anne out there who work to help when we’re at our most vulnerable is heartening.
What I learned from listening to Anne is that you never know where your curiosity might lead you. We might think palliative care makes for a grim career choice, but for Anne there is heartfelt satisfaction knowing that she can be there to ease suffering, of both her patient and those caring for them.
Listen to Anne Myers on A Better World Blueprint on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Anne’s Blueprint:
Some ideas from Anne on how she has lived her life of purpose
Who most inspires you?
“I'm a writer as well, so keeping it local, Helen Garner probably is pretty high on my list. She just tells it how it is. She's very honest and there's no hiding behind anything.”
Do you have a saying that helps guide you?
“Not a saying as such, but I think just doing this work and the toll it takes as a palliative care nurse giving out care all the time, and I think I've only really learnt this in the last few years, is kindness to self and compassion and love for self and to tend to that and keep that cup full because otherwise you can't give it to other people. That's been a huge learning.”
Is there a book, movie or piece of art that has had an impact on your life?
“I'm a wide reader. Australian writers, the Helen Garners and Anna Funders and Anna Kriens and Chloe Hooper's of the world are incredible. I think reading those books has helped me learn how to live, how to navigate my own life or to make me see how others live to reconsider how I live.”
What's your favourite thing in the world to?
“I'm a horse person, I have a little Connemara pony called Evie who has taught me a lot of patience over the last few years. Bless that little gray pony.”
What is the best thing you ever did?
“A couple of years ago, a friend had a bad riding accident and was choppered out of the paddock to the Alfred hospital. And I think it just gave me a wake up call. I know I work in palliative care, but it just [reminded me that] life is short, life is finite. And it made me put my writer hat on a bit more solidly. And I reduced my hours and have stepped back a little bit from palliative care in the last year.
“Because I know I just need more time to not be exhausted from doing that work and to, even talking to you today, if I was deep in palliative care work, I probably wouldn't even have the head space to be able to put two words together. So it's just given me a bit of space.”
What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
“Just live in the present, be more in the moment. And I think being with horses, they help me be in the present. There's no past or future. It's just not looking at my phone all the time and checking out a little bit.”
Listen to Anne Myers on A Better World Blueprint on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.