Okay, so I admit it.
Sometimes I use hospice patients
like a horoscope or a magic eight ball.
One of my dementia patients
who goes months without speaking
will look me in the eye and
speak a complete sentence
and it will sometimes feel like
a word straight from God.
Today I visited two women of advanced years
in two different nursing homes
on two different sides of town.
Both were still in their right minds...
both were able to converse with comprehension
and both have shared many visits with me.
Both are also legally blind.
For some reason, both ladies
took me by the hand today
and said earnestly...
"Take care of your eyes."
In the past, both have shared
the incredibly frustation of blindness,
but I don't remember either of them
saying this to me before.
Why both in one day?
I don't think this is a warning from
the heavenly powers...
perhaps it is just good advice.
Kind of an odd thing
when visits run parallel.
Tonight the vision I need to keep clear
is vocational.
Why do I love my job?
I need to keep a clear sight on
what it is about being a hospice chaplain
that has meaning for me.
This week I got a little caught up
in the politics of administration
and productivity
and other bean counting controversies...
which made me cranky
and threw me off kilter.
I need to keep my eyes
open
to the things that matter...
and keep the other details in proper perspective.
