In this video, Dr. Chuck and author Bruce Pulver discuss the power of words, and the important role that words can play in your life.
The Power of Words
Dr. Chuck: We’re here with Bruce Pulver, he is the author of Above The Chatter, Our Words Matter, and I want to just ask him some basic questions, because Bruce has a very interesting beginning. Bruce, good to have you on the show.
Bruce Pulver: Chuck, it’s great to be here. I look forward to our conversation and, my gosh, thank you so much for making some time and hopefully we’ll, you know, influence some folks and drop some information that encourage folks in our conversation.
Dr. Chuck: So, Bruce, I want to start out with your birth, because this is one of the rarest things. You never want to be the patient that people go, “oh yeah, Bruce Pulver, I remember when he was born.” You don’t want to be the, you never want to be the person that the doctor remembers. Let’s begin when you were born, and what happened to your mother when she delivered you.
Bruce Pulver: Yeah, and you’re right, you never want to remember, and as old as I am now, I’m not sure there are that many folks around still that remember. But back in the very early sixties, when I was born, my mother’s second labour, I have an older brother, seemed to be normal.
But what ended up happening is she suffered what’s called a dissecting aortic aneurysm during labour. And from what I understand there, Chuck, is that that meant the blood leaving her heart in the arteries, the lining tore and she began bleeding in between the lining of the interior wall and the exterior wall.
Dr. Chuck: That’s a good explanation, Bruce, and, by the way, for our audience, that’s bad, especially when you’re delivering a baby. So she had a dissection.
It just so happens, a lot of coincidences happened the day you were born, some doctors in the hospital that were able to save her life.
Bruce Pulver: Yeah, so we were in Connecticut, associated with Yale University Medical Center, and there were two surgeons visiting Yale, teaching from Tulane University, that had just perfected valve replacement work or done some of the first research that had proven to be successful, and so those two surgeons came over and absolutely got to work as she plunged into a battle for her life.
Dr. Chuck: And so she delivered you, and then she got really sick.
Bruce Pulver: She did, they c-sectioned me out, and then I believe there were three experimental surgeries. One was to repair the tear and a blood clot, then there was a tear in her valve that they had to go in, without much technology, and determine where to go.
And then after that, there was some heart failure that they had to try to deal with as well. So, it was close to 60 days before she even saw me.
Dr. Chuck: You know, Bruce, an event like that, at your birth, I mean of course, that kind of sets the tone for a lot of things. I mean, you realized early on that your life was a gift, and for those of you who don’t know Bruce, Bruce is the author of a new book called Above The Chatter, Our Words Matter, and Bruce takes words and helps us to really wrap our minds around the words that we express and what’s going on in our mind. What was the word you think that really stuck with you during your early years that made a difference?
Bruce Pulver: So that’s a great question, and my dad was kind of the word guy and my mom was so grateful. She lived 22 years, which was longer than anyone said she would, and so she didn’t give up.
But one of the words that sticks with me, and it’s on the cover of the book, is the word “strong”. She had to be strong.
I mean, the surgeons did everything they could, right? But at the end of the day, there is a certain aspect of, I believe, a will. A will to fight through things, whether it’s health, work, stress, struggles, anything, and so I just wrote that word vertically on the day I started writing this book. And immediately, the letters spoke to me to become S was “Stand Tall, Remain Optimistic, Now Go for it”.
So I start looking, and that’s the way I look at words, is sort of edgewise or vertically. And that’s the word that stuck with me, because she was, internally, incredibly strong every day and tried to help us realize that and be grateful for that.
Dr. Chuck: Wow, so I think that was kind of the word that started it all, even though that may not have been in your mind at that moment. As a young child, your mother modeled that word, and it’s interesting how when you went through a crisis in your life, that was one of the first words that popped into your mind and one of the words that motivated you to write this book.
We’re here with Bruce Pulver, he is the author of Above The Chatter, Our Words Matter, and check out his book on his website, we’ll have all the links for you here.
I’m Dr. Page, the best guy to see on the worst day of your life. Bruce, I want to ask you one question before we close this segment: what would be the spoonful of courage that you would give to our audience? Maybe who are born with a set of just bad circumstances? What’d be the one piece of advice that you could give them?
Bruce Pulver: Wow, well, I’m going to go with our upbringing, which was a spiritual upbringing, and I would say, faith. Face anything insurmountable, trust Him.
Dr. Chuck:
Wow, that’s really good. We’re here with Bruce Pulver, Bruce, it’s been good having you on the show. We’re going to have Bruce and some other segments and you can find those at our website and on our show Spoonful of Courage.
You can buy Bruce’s book Above The Chatter, Our Words Matter by clicking here or check out his website abovethechatterourwordsmatter.com.
Bruce has also started a show with Co-Host Heather Carter. Check out the promotional video below.
For more devotionals with Dr. Chuck, register by clicking the button below.
For more Spoonfuls of Courage, check out Dr. Chuck’s show Spoonful of Courage TV or buy the books A Spoonful of Courage for the Sick and Suffering: Transforming Your Greatest Challenges into Your Biggest Blessings and Spoonful of Courage: Equations to Find Grace in Life’s Challenges on Amazon.
