Reflecting

Last night, while standing on the steps of the altar in the church that I've been a member of for the past twenty-one years, I looked out and saw the most beautiful faces radiating back at me as I spoke about the challenges and gifts in caregiving. Most of the people listening had, at some point, been caregivers, and many had been cared for. Mary, our minister, had just spent the day traveling between two very sick parishioners. She was exhausted, but there she sat, listening, smiling at me, and reassuring me with her eyes. Several women I have known for over a decade nodded their heads as I spoke. Paul, my fellow Sunday School teacher and dear friend, sat intently listening.

There's a feeling I tried to capture in my book, and it's nearly impossible to render in words, but I was graced with that feeling once again as I spoke last night. I wrote a passage once to express this particular feeling. Here is a small part of it:

The gift of the human spirit is its ability to connect to others--a desire to help, a prayer, a positive common energy that combines to form a physical thing--a force that becomes a pair of strong, invisible arms lifting you above the pain. Messages sent verbally, in writing, through acts of kindness, in thoughtful glances, and exchanged looks of fervent hope, create a clairvoyant healing energy. It is real, it is powerful, and it is beautiful.

Thank you, Church of the Epiphany, for sending me and my family your prayers over the years.
They have been received.