Since starting my advocacy work for Hospice last June, people have told me the most amazing, personal, goosebump-inducing stories about loved ones in their last days. They've also thrust books into my hands containing many more such accounts of the shimmering veil between this life and the next. I recently devoured one of these treasures, Midwife for Souls, written by a devout Catholic who is also a hospice nurse. Here's how the book ends...and I can't stop thinking about how beautiful and true these words are--not just in hospice, but in all of life:
At the beginning of my work in hospice I always held back, reserving a part of myself, for fear that my heart would break. For years I refused to care for dying children because I believed that my heart just wasn’t strong enough. By the time I met Brice [a pediatric patient], I’d had my heart broken before. Years have passed, and I’ve had my heart broken many times since, doing this work. It’s the most amazing thing. Did you know that a heart can get stronger in all the broken places? I used to think it took a strong heart to do difficult things. Now I know that doing difficult things is how you get one.
Kalina, Kathy (2011-06-24). Midwife for Souls (Kindle Locations 1785-1789). Pauline Books and Media. Kindle Edition.
2 comments:
AMAZING quote! It goes along with the quip, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." And, for Christians, Rm. 8:28 - "All things work together for good for those who love God, for those called according to his purpose."
Beautiful. Her comments and your learnings remind me of the Japanese art of Kintsukoroi. In this art form, broken pottery is repaired in a masters hands using gold and silver to repair the broken places. This does the opposite of hiding the brokenness...instead the broken places are highlighted and the repaired places make the piece more beautiful, interesting and unique as no two repairs are exactly the same.
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