Stained Glass in the Nemours Chapel Today is my last day working at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. It has been a rich time in many ways: a time for recovery from a devastating loss; a time of rediscovery of a passion for pastoral care which had lain dormant for a decade; a timeContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #6”
Category Archives: Hospital Notes
Hospital Notes #5: To Be Known is to Be Seen
A friend of mine often says, “It’s so nice to put my eyes on you.” I appreciate the intention of that sentence. Seeing is not just a passive thing that happens when she does it. She is really looking at me. I hope to look at others that way. I want to stretch out theContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #5: To Be Known is to Be Seen”
Hospital Notes #4: When We Took Off Our Masks
The News The World Health Organization said on Friday, May 5th, that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency. The leaders of the hospital where I work took that news as the last item in their decision tree and lifted the mandatory mask order for all patients and staff. Of course, personal protective equipmentContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #4: When We Took Off Our Masks”
Hospital Notes #3: What a wonder to be wrong!
I was called to pray for a baby who was dying. When I am on call, I take the Pastoral Care Department cell phone home with me, so I had forty-five minutes to get to the hospital. I told that to the nurse, quickly dressed, and started flying toward I-95. When I arrived in theContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #3: What a wonder to be wrong!”
Hospital Notes #2: Children are much harder to hate
People often ask me if my job is hard. I am a chaplain in a children’s hospital and they presume difficulty. “How can you stomach all that suffering?” — the subtext of their honest question: “Do you like your job?” My answer: “I couldn’t say I like it; but I think it pleases God, andContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #2: Children are much harder to hate”
Hospital Notes #1: You’re a bigger deal than you think.
I state my esteem for you because I believe that we too, even as strangers, can participate in the love-life of all things, the center of the universe, God, whenever we love.
Working With Worry
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Jesus (Matthew 6:34) Recently I was talking to a mother in the cardiac intensive care unit and I stumbled across a new insight about worry in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Don’t forget toContinueContinue reading “Working With Worry”
To the End — A Christmas Story
I’m beginning my time at Nemours Children’s Hospital. Moving into chaplaincy again, this story came to mind. I wrote it about my first experience of death in the hospital one December many years ago. It’s almost all true, but none of the names are. May what needs to be unmade in you die this winter,ContinueContinue reading “To the End — A Christmas Story”
A Short Story for All Saints Day
Remembering Peter A short story for All Saints Day As the elevator door slid open I instinctively started to step off but quickly balked as I realized we were only at the second floor. I shuffled my forward step sideways and made room for a familiar faced man to sidle into place in the frontContinueContinue reading “A Short Story for All Saints Day”
Today, if you hear his voice 