It’s funny, as I was reading, I was reminded of another Henry Nouwen quote. I won’t get it exactly right but he was exploring the difference between caring and curing. He was pretty direct in claiming that curing without caring is bloodless, and maybe even a little cruel.
I feel I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with medical teams
who made caring their first priority. Of course, curing mattered, but curing was not always possible. The caring always was, and they never flinched from that sacred work.
It is such an encouragement to read your words, and to know that there are others who have the courage to care even when caring means seeing what nobody should see.
This is such an important and emotional subject. Before returning to my first love, art, I was a nurse for 19 years. I still remember the names and circumstances of pediatric patients I cared for more than 40 years ago. They remain in your heart forever and the little ache doesn't go away. I am now at an age where friends or their spouses are dying. It is a sobering feeling knowing there are more years behind you and ahead. Thank you for the care you have given to those at the end of their journey.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I agree, we remember it all. And I read a poem recently where she wrote, “is getting older just a series of funerals?” And it really made me pause. Sigh…..
Thank you for this.
It’s funny, as I was reading, I was reminded of another Henry Nouwen quote. I won’t get it exactly right but he was exploring the difference between caring and curing. He was pretty direct in claiming that curing without caring is bloodless, and maybe even a little cruel.
I feel I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with medical teams
who made caring their first priority. Of course, curing mattered, but curing was not always possible. The caring always was, and they never flinched from that sacred work.
It is such an encouragement to read your words, and to know that there are others who have the courage to care even when caring means seeing what nobody should see.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your Hannover is beautiful and I'm glad she tends you so well.
This is such an important and emotional subject. Before returning to my first love, art, I was a nurse for 19 years. I still remember the names and circumstances of pediatric patients I cared for more than 40 years ago. They remain in your heart forever and the little ache doesn't go away. I am now at an age where friends or their spouses are dying. It is a sobering feeling knowing there are more years behind you and ahead. Thank you for the care you have given to those at the end of their journey.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I agree, we remember it all. And I read a poem recently where she wrote, “is getting older just a series of funerals?” And it really made me pause. Sigh…..
And in reality, it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Your work, so important, surely takes its toll on you. Take good care.
“Horses where the Answers should have been”. https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/horses-where-the-answers-should-have-been-by-chase-twichell/.
For the horse lovers, and the rest of us as well. Am I a horse lover? Not really, too big an animal for me. But so beautiful they are.
And I sure hope I have a hospice nurse as caring as yourself when my time comes… giving myself another twenty years, or twenty five maybe.
Thank you for your kind words ❤️